Easter, a time where kids enjoy another opportunity to search for candy filled eggs and use another religious holiday as an excuse to give gifts and get together with families. Whether you loved the Russel Stover chocolate covered marshmallow bunny, Marshmallow Peeps, Cadbury Eggs or the Reese’s Peanut Butter eggs, it was always a fun time. Without offending anyone who abhores the fact one of the most important Christian religious days has been turned into ‘Easter Bunny Madness’, it is often a sign that the NHL regular season is near its end. For Minnesota, they know their season is near its end so they have nothing to really to lose at this point, while the Northwest Division leading Vancouver Canucks are hoping to build some momentum as they prepare themselves for what they hope will be a long run in the post-season.
Minnesota was coming off a hard-fought loss to San Jose on Friday night, where there late-game rally wasn’t quite enough. Will the Wild have enough focus and energy to pull off a victory over their arch-rival Vancouver or will Vancouver make Minnesota wish it stayed home for Easter?
Right from the drop of the puck the Wild looked tired as if they were suffering from jet lag as the Canucks controlled the pace of play throughout the first half of the period. Vancouver was moving well, working their cycling game as Minnesota was chasing around its own end and starting to reach with the stick putting it in danger of getting into penalty trouble early. The Canucks were even working their youngster Michael Grabner who was showing off his wicked release as ripped a shot from the high slot that was blocked aside by Niklas Backstrom. Backstrom was busy right away as Vancouver was swarming near his crease. The Wild finally was able to draw an interference penalty on Kevin Bieksa as Cal Clutterbuck used his speed to chase down a puck on the forecheck. It was an opportunity for the Wild to make something positive happen and it blew right up in their faces off the initial faceoff as the Canucks won the draw and Alexandre Burrows raced towards the Minnesota zone. At this point, Burrows could’ve been prevented from creating much of anything but a half-hearted effort by Martin Havlat who was playing the blueline spot on the power play just watched as Burrows sped around him. As Burrows got behind Havlat, this forced Marek Zidlicky to commit to taking him and thus leaving Ryan Kesler all by himself and the speedy Canucks forward dished it over to Kesler who lifted a shot by Backstrom for a backbreaking shorthanded tally. Minnesota was not able to do much else with the rest of the power play but overall you could see the Wild had awakened a bit. The Wild were working harder as the kid line of Cal Clutterbuck, Cody Almond and Casey Wellman created a scoring chance for Clutterbuck from the slot as he hammered a snap shot that was gloved by Roberto Luongo. A few moments later it was Martin Havlat who found a little space and then ripped a wrist shot high glove side that was snagged out of the air by Luongo. Even though the Wild were skating better and showing more fire and intensity the Canucks still were having far less difficulty creating scoring chances and that was clearly shown by the fact they were outshot 11 to 3 in the period.
The 2nd period resembled more of a shooting gallery for the Wild as Niklas Backstrom found himself under siege. After a few failed power play opportunities early in the period for the Wild the Canucks went on the attack and thanks to a few weak penalty calls by NHL referee Dennis LaRue as Vancouver would be given a 5-on-3 power play on a terribly weak hooking call on James Sheppard. Minnesota’s penalty killers which were scrambling all over their zone and managed to make it a 5-on-4 as Backstrom stopped a few point-blank range chances before finally being beaten by a point shot by Kevin Bieksa that eluded the Wild goaltender thanks to a perfect screen by Ryan Kesler. The Canucks could sense Minnesota’s spirits were down and they went on the attack and drew a few more Wild penalties. Vancouver really would pour it on as they created a variety of scoring chances from in close as Daniel Sedin found his redirect attempt stonewalled by a flailing Niklas Backstrom. Even when the Canucks managed to get Backstrom out of position the Wild’s defense was able to get in shooting lanes and block shots aside or Vancouver found the post. The Canucks just continued to pepper Backstrom with shots but he was up to the task even as Vancouver were really crowding the crease. They eventually would help Minnesota out when Backstrom was bowled over by Michael Grabner giving Minnesota a power play. On the man advantage the Wild were moving the puck with good efficiency setting up a blast from the point by Brent Burns that was stopped by a leg pad save by Luongo. Minnesota would earn a 5-on-3 of its own as Jannik Hansen would haul down Burns as he tried to step around him in the Vancouver zone. On the two-man advantage the Wild moved the puck ok, setting up a few chances near the Canucks’ crease but Luongo and his defense was able to keep Minnesota from having the 2nd chance opportunities and were able to clear the zone. In some ways the Wild should count themselves lucky to only be trailing 2-0 after two.
Little could anyone predict the pattern of the 3rd period. The Wild would draw a few power plays early on but seemed to be snakebitten by a mixture of bad luck and some terrific saves by Roberto Luongo. A classic example of this was on the first power play of the period when Mikko Koivu found his attempt denied by a diving play by Mikael Samuelsson. The Wild would finally cash in, on their 9th power play of the game as a Nick Schultz shot from the point was deflected wide by Antti Miettinen and the puck would carom hard off the boards to a waiting Andrew Brunette who pounced on it to fire it by Luongo cutting the lead to 2-1. Minnesota looked to have new life and you could see the sense of urgency in the Wild. Unfortunately some ill-timed penalties would give Vancouver a chance to add to its lead but the Wild’s penalty kill stood tall and even tried to be aggressive and create some offensive pressure shorthanded as best personified by an effort by Owen Nolan who carried a puck into the Canucks’ zone, outbattled two Vancouver defenders and then he created a nice backhanded chance on Luongo. The Wild tried one last desperate attempt by pulling their goaltender with just over a minute left but looked to have their goose cooked when Alexander Edler cleared a puck into the empty Minnesota net to give the Canucks a 3-1 lead with 51 seconds left. Game over right? Some Canucks fans certainly thought so as they began to head for the exits. On the very next shift, some great hustle by youngster Casey Wellman to race to a dump in along the boards would be rewarded when he centered a pass towards the top of the crease that was tapped by Roberto Luongo by Cody Almond for his first NHL goal to cut the lead to one, 3-2. This would buy Minnesota one last chance and the Wild would waste little time making the most of it as they would again pull Backstrom for an extra attacker and a dump in was picked up by some good hustle by Andrew Brunette who fed it back out front to a wide open Antti Miettinen who buried it by Luongo to tie the game at 3-3 in front of a shocked GM Place crowd. The Wild bench went eccstatic and understandably so as they’d let the final seconds tick off the clock sending the game to overtime.
In overtime the Canucks had a terrific early chance as Henrik Sedin ripped a shot that nearly beat Backstrom and Minnesota would try to go back on the attack and Roberto Luongo was able to block away the shot by Mikko Koivu. Minnesota would then recieve some terrible luck as a terrible high sticking call on Greg Zanon by a clearly embellished high stick by Alexander Burrows. On the ensuing power play a broken stick for Cam Barker turned it into a 4-on-2 advantage for the Canucks and it was Sami Salo blasting a shot by a well-screened Backstrom to give Vancouver a 4-3 overtime win. Wild Head Coach Todd Richards had a few choice words for what he thought was a bad call but NHL Referees Dennis LaRue and Brad Meier didn’t want to hear any criticism and left the ice as fast as they could as the Minnesota bench boss continued to stare them down.
Niklas Backstrom had an outstanding game standing on his head and giving Minnesota a chance to win this game make 36 saves in the loss. Many of Backstrom’s saves came from shots taken right near the top of his crease and in all honesty the Wild had no business staying in this game as long as it did. Defensively the Wild was as good as they could be despite being saddled by some very questionable calls. While you hate to blame officiating for the loss but it led directly to two of the Canucks’ goals. The first of which a horrendous ‘roughing’ call on Marek Zidlicky which was given for a clean body check to Alexandre Burrows and then seconds later a terrible ‘hooking’ call on James Sheppard who just got his stick onto the leg of Kyle Wellwood but at no time did he hook the Canucks forward which gave Vancouver a 5-on-3. The Canucks would score their 2nd goal on Sheppard’s penalty and then later in the game the clearly embellished high stick by Burrows from Greg Zanon proved to be the game winner. Burrows, who is notorious for embellishing hits and was annoyed earlier in the season at NHL referee Stephane Auger for paying him back in a later game for a bogus call he gave earlier in the season (Burrows) has no reason to complain at all. His snickering grin from the bench after drawing a penalty is all the proof you need to see the kid is not a competitor, but rather a gutless actor.
While the Wild’s offense really was not present throughout most of this game it showed good persistence down the stretch and took advantage of the opportunity Backstrom gave them to at least force an overtime in this game. The kid line of Wellwood, Almond and Clutterbuck are showing some good chemistry together and you can sense their comfort level increasing. Brent Burns is really starting to look prime and its sad to think his season is just a few games away from being over with as he is playing dominantly. Tonight he even showed a little nastiness as he buried a few Canucks with some good hits along the boards.
Minnesota does not have long to feel the pain of this loss as it boards a flight for Edmonton tonight in a game between two non-playoff teams but it will likely be more about pride than anything else. Another test of the Wild’s character down the stretch and hopefully they show some of the fire that they exhibited in the final period of this game.
Wild Notes:
~ Wild roster tonight is as follows: Mikko Koivu, Martin Havlat, Andrew Brunette, Antti Miettinen, Owen Nolan, Kyle Brodziak, Cody Almond, Derek Boogaard, Cal Clutterbuck, Casey Wellman, Guillaume Latendresse, Greg Zanon, Cam Barker, Shane Hnidy, Marek Zidlicky, Nick Schultz and Brent Burns. Wade Dubielewicz backed up Niklas Backstrom. John Scott and Nate Prosser were healthy scratches. Clayton Stoner, Chuck Kobasew are out of the lineup with ‘lower body’ injuries while Andrew Ebbett is out for the rest of the season with a broken finger and Pierre-Marc Bouchard is on the shelf with post-concussion symptoms.
~ The 3 Stars of the Game were: 1st Star Niklas Backstrom, 2nd Star Ryan Kesler, 3rd Star Sami Salo
~ Tonight was Owen Nolan’s 1,200th NHL game throughout his 18-year career. It was also Andrew Brunette’s 100th goal as a member of the Wild.
Wild Prospect Report:
D – Tyler Cuma ~ Ottawa 67’s (OHL)
2009-10 Stats: 52GP 5G 17A = 22pts 73 PIM’s +9
It has been slow going for Minnesota’s top pick in 2008. From a knee injury he sustained last season while trying out for the Canadian U-20 World Junior team, and since then the progress can best be described as frustrating. Cuma again has battled injuries throughout the season and that has limited his effectiveness as captain of the 67’s. In the playoffs, Cuma has provided steady defensive play and only a very modest offensive contribution of just 4 assists in 8 games. The -4 in the playoffs is nothing to brag about, but that is a side effect of logging big minutes for Ottawa against their top lines so most of Cuma’s contributions do not show up on the scoresheet. We’ll see if he starts making a more visible impact as the 67’s battle out their next series against the Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors.
G – Matthew Hackett ~ Plymouth Whalers (OHL)
2009-10 Stats: (33-18-1) 2.62GAA .925%SP
Sometimes perception can look better than reality, and in the case of Matt Hackett that is a great way to describe his playoffs thus far. With a gawdy .925% save percentage it is a testament to how many shots he has been facing each game having made 243 saves in 7 games (around 34 shots per game average). His 3-3 playoff record is nothing to go crazy about but he has been a major reason the Whalers advanced to the 2nd round. Facing the high-octane Windsor Spitfires will be a big task for Hackett in the Whalers, but if there ever was a series where his ability to steal games will be crucial this will be it. In their most recent game, a 5-3 loss to the Spitfires; Hackett stopped 51 of 55 shots just giving you an indicator of just how uphill a challenge this will be.
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