Superbowl Sunday is just around the corner. It is nearly a holiday unto itself, and a pilgrimage to some. Nevermind the ridiculous price gouging, where fans are asked to shell out $1,000 or more just for a parking spot. The game is fed by weeks of media hype including the two-week blitz of pointless stories and lame soundbites from players and coaches. Its nauseating. Then again, I live in Wisconsin so the coverage of the event is amplified. Where the local news covers a story of a middle aged couple that purchased two tickets to the game at $2,400 apiece. I am a Vikings fan, but I don’t care if Minnesota was in the Super Bowl, I’d never spend $2,400 on a single ticket. That being said I wonder what the Wild fans that decided to participate on the team’s annual road trip to Phoenix for tonight’s game paid for the whole excursion. Tickets in the lower bowl of the Jobing.com Arena are between $120-$75, a lot more affordable and in my opinion much more worthy of my fan dollars. Sitting at a game with an obscene amount of commercial breaks and an extended halftime show that fits in some silly concert in 30 minutes doesn’t sound like anything Iike I’d wish to attend. Call me grouchy, but after two weeks of news of homer-ific news coverage bordering on the absurd, where a lead news story is someone painting a giant green “G” on a lake near Madison hopefully you can see where I’m coming from.
So back to tonight’s game against the Phoenix Coyotes. The Coyotes resident Twitter sensation, Paul Bissonette called this a “do or die game” and that should be posted on the bulletin board in case the Wild need motivation. Minnesota has lots to feel good about as of late, winning their last 3 games and sitting on the cusp of a playoff spot. The Wild cannot afford to rest on its laurels because it is so much easier to plummet in the standings than it is to climb towards the top. Hopefully the Wild can deliver a victory for tose fans that decided to make the trip down to Phoenix to watch them play. Will the Wild make those fans feel the trip was worth it or will they be considering whether or not they should demand their money back?
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1st Period Thoughts: It was not their best effort. The Wild looked pretty tired, especially the last 10 minutes of the period. Early on the Wild were able to create some good scoring chances as they tried to take the puck to the crease to jam it in much the same way they had success near the start of the Colorado game but they were unable to solve Ilya Bryzgalov. Phoenix started to throw its body around a bit as Paul Bissonette tried to be a wrecking ball on the ice and the physicality appeared to back the Wild off. As Minnesota stopped moving its feet, the Coyotes went on the attack and the ice would tilt in the direction of the Wild’s crease. Niklas Backstrom found himself under siege. The Coyotes started blasting shots from long range that Backstrom stopped with ease, but as the period continued the chances were from point blank range and the Wild goaltender bailed his team out with a number of incredible saves. Minnesota’s lack of hustle would also lead to giving up two power plays. The first minute the Wild found themselves watching and reaching with their sticks as the Coyotes piled up shots on goal while Backstrom somehow managed to keep the puck out of the back of the net, including one sequence where he stopped a shot right from the top of the crease by Scottie Upshall and Minnesota was able to clear the zone. Minnesota tried to increase its intensity with a phyisical shift from its energy line as Cal Clutterbuck delivered a few big hits, but Phoenix’s captain Shane Doan would answer back with a nice check to Justin Falk and then he made a power move to the goal that forced Backstrom to make another big stop before Cam Barker helped the net off of its moorings. Barker’s ‘help’ gave Minnesota another penalty to kill off. The Wild would play rope-a-dope through the last minutes of the period, but they’d get a small bit of relief as Martin Hanzal was given a pretty marginal goaltender interference call. The Wild are really playing with fire if they want to keep giving the Coyotes power plays. Offensively the Wild need to be less picky and fire shots on goal when they have the chance; a perfect example of this over generous play was when Antti Miettinen raced down the left side and instead of taking his open lane to shoot the puck he attempted to feed a pass to Mikko Koivu that was intercepted. Miettinen needs to realize his line needs him to be a triggerman, not a set up guy.
2nd Period Thoughts: The 2nd period was a little better. The Wild were not chasing the Coyotes as much and were taking more opportunities to go on the attack. It wasn’t as though the Wild were flying around the ice, but they were doing less standing and watching which was happening far too often during the 1st period. The 2nd line of Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Martin Havlat and Kyle Brodziak was working well to establish a little cycling game in the Coyotes’ zone, but despite the possession they struggled to put too many shots on Bryzgalov. Minnesota still needs to shoot the puck more frequently and hope to get a lucky bounce of carom off a skate. They can’t expect that to happen if they continue to over handle the puck. The Wild finally got a little sustained offense on the power play, but their best chances came from the point as Cam Barker shot the puck more in about a minute than he has in the last 10 games combined. The Coyotes had their moments too, but Minnesota did not allow Phoenix to just swarm around the net as it had in the 1st. Cody Almond looks painfully slow and hesitant out on the ice and while the team had no choice to play him I don’t think we’ll see him too much in the 3rd period. I understand he and Justin Falk arrived very early in the morning after having played the night before in Houston but if he wants to make a positive impression he has to be better than he was tonight. Another ugly period.
3rd Period Thoughts: The ending was really not all that surprising when you consider how poorly the Wild played to see that all it was going to take was a single goal for Phoenix to be enough to win the game. It happened just past 2:20 when Phoenix defenseman Sami Lepisto skated into the Wild zone, and he feinted at shooting which froze the Wild’s defense; most notably Cam Barker and he threaded a pass to Taylor Pyatt who one-timed a shot up and over Niklas Backstrom. The Wild mildly attempted to push for the equalizer but as happened throughout much of the 1st and 2nd periods, the team did not pull the trigger when the opportunities presented themselves. The Coyotes were content to sit back in a 1-2-2 and defend their one-goal lead, which was a smart idea since so few members of the Wild wanted to shoot the puck. I know I hate the fans that incessantly yell “shoot!” all game long, but Minnesota’s passiveness with the puck came back to haunt them in the final moments of the game. The Wild would pull Niklas Backstrom and even when they were able to win a few battles for the puck no one wanted to shoot and the over handling the puck and the Coyotes were able to get their sticks in the passing lanes and potential shooting opportunities were squandered. It was especially infuriating to see the team’s captain, Mikko Koivu be set up with time and space and instead of firing the puck attempts an ill-advised diagonal pass to Miettinen that was intercepted. The result was the Wild never forced Bryzgalov to make any saves in those final moments. The team even got a very weak icing call late to have one last faceoff in the Coyotes’ end with 4 seconds left and its only fitting that the team captain again failed to win the draw and the team lost in shameful fashion. Minnesota was out of gas and it played like it all game long.
One player that cannot be blamed for the outcome was Niklas Backstrom. Backstrom was absolutely incredible, making 40 saves in a losing effort. He made a number of fantastic saves from close-range, including a wicked kick of the leg to deny a shot by Lee Stempniak. Backstrom gave the Wild every chance to win this game. You give up just one goal and lose, you can’t blame the goaltender. Defensively the Wild were just ok. Nick Schultz was another example of the lack of initiative for this club. In the 3rd period, a puck was trickling towards the blueline and Schultz had turned his back to the puck and was skating back to the red line when he spun around to see the Coyotes take the puck out of their zone and go on the rush and he continued to spin around attempting to find the puck and did not even manage to stop Upshall from taking a shot. That’s simply poor defense and hesitant play. Inexcusable. I thought Justin Falk looked weak and lacked the confidence he had early in the season. He wasn’t terrible, but he made me wish Jared Spurgeon was back there instead of him.
Offensively it was utter embarrassment. The whole team appeared to be waiting for someone else to step up and lead the way. No one wanted the puck, or at the very least to shoot it on goal. When Cam Barker is 2nd on the team in shots on goal, with 3 to his credit you’re probably struggling to generate a lot of scoring chances. The player who disappointed me the most was Mikko Koivu. Sure, he may have been tired and he logged over 21 minutes of ice time but he has to be a guy who looks to shoot more often than he did. Especially down the stretch he passed up multiple chances to fire the biscuit. The best players in the game want the puck at the critical times and they want to take that chance and fire shots on goal.
The bottom line is the Wild deserved to lose this game. They looked tired on the ice and it was obvious Phoenix wanted this game more. Being out shot 41 to 25 says it all. 25 shots seems generous to me for the Wild, who managed just 8 shots on goal in a period where they needed a goal to at least salvage a point in this game. The team returns to St. Paul where they have a small break in their schedule before playing the Avalanche on Wednesday. They can expect the Avalanche to be hungry, focused and with some jump in their skates so Minnesota must be better than they were tonight. Tonight was a missed opportunity and a team that it was battling for a playoff spot got a clean 2 points in the standings at the Wild’s expense. I hope they learn their lesson.
Wild Notes:
~ Wild roster tonight was as follows: Mikko Koivu, Antti Miettinen, Andrew Brunette, Chuck Kobasew, John Madden, Eric Nystrom, Brad Staubitz, Kyle Brodziak, Cody Almond, Cal Clutterbuck, Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Martin Havlat, Justin Falk, Nick Schultz, Greg Zanon, Clayton Stoner, Cam Barker and Brent Burns. Jose Theodore backed up Niklas Backstrom. Marco Scandella, Jared Spurgeon and Matt Cullen were the “healthy” scratches. Marek Zidlicky (shoulder), James Sheppard (knee) and Guillaume Latendresse (groin & sports hernia) are on injured reserve.
~ The 3 Stars of the Game were: 1st Star Ilya Bryzgalov, 2nd Star Taylor Pyatt, 3rd Star Lauri Korpikoski
~ Tonight’s attendance at Jobing.com Arena was 14,587.
~ Houston Aeros find themselves in a 4-way tie for first place in the West Division after defeating in-state rival Texas Stars (for the 7th time this season) 4-1. The Aeros would control the pace of the play early on, even though both teams were showing elements of rustiness as it was their first game after the AHL All Star break. Houston would take a 1-0 lead late in the second period on a power play one-timer by Patrick O’Sullivan. In a bit more back and forth 2nd period where both squads started to find their legs a bit, as Jed Ortmeyer started to fly around the ice lighting up Stars players wherever he could find them. The Stars, dilapidated by injuries had a very difficult time creating any sort of offense making Anton Khudobin‘s job pretty easy. The Aeros would strike again on the power play as O’Sullivan rifled a one-timer by Brent Krahn to give Houston a 2-0 lead. Houston would score 40 seconds later when Jarod Palmer found the net for the first time since November. The Stars would answer back late in the game on the power play, when Luke Gazdic shoveled a shot by Khudobin to cut the Aeros lead to two, 3-1. The Aeros lone All Star representative, Maxim Noreau bury an empty netter to seal a 4-1 Houston win. Khudobin had 31 saves in the victory. The arrival of O’Sullivan has been a terrific offensive boost for the Aeros, scoring 5 goals, and 9 points in just 8 games. The Aeros play tomorrow against the Texas Stars in Austin.
~ Next week Saturday is Hockey Day in Minnesota and as usual the State of Hockey News will provide complete coverage all day long. We hope you check in with us frequently as we will do our best to cover all the games.
Minnesota High School Hockey Report:
Top 10 Scorers (Boys):
1. Tyler Heinonen (Delano) – 21GP 42G 36A = 78pts
2. Ville Rantanen (Mankato West) – 21GP 43G 25A = 68pts
3. Garrett Hendrickson (Virginia/Mt.Iron-Buhl) – 22GP 26G 39A = 65pts
4. Josh Archibald (Brainerd) – 22GP 24G 40A = 64pts
5. Nick DeCenzo (Hibbing-Chisholm) – 21GP 19G 45A = 63pts
6. Justin Kloos (Lakeville South) – 19GP 26G 37A = 63pts
7. Dillon McLain (Delano) – 21GP 22G 41A = 63pts
8. Adam Johnson (Hibbing-Chisholm) – 21GP 32G 30A = 62pts
9. Nate Baker (Detroit Lakes) – 20GP 35G 21A = 56pts
10. Andrew Habel (Chisago Lakes) – 19GP 22G 33A = 55pts
Top 5 Goaltenders (Boys):
1. Alex Lyon (Lake of the Woods) – (13-5-2) 1.57GAA .946%SP
2. Michael Stumpf (Little Falls) – (12-1-1) 1.37GAA .940%SP
3. Michael Bitzer (Moorhead) – (14-5-1) 2.04GAA .933%SP
4. Zach Moore (Woodbury) – (6-3-0) 2.33GAA .932%SP
5. Nick Malvin (Blaine) – (11-4-3) 1.89GAA .931%SP
Top 10 Scorers (Girls):
1. Taylor Kuehl (Mound-Westonka) – 25GP 50G 46A = 96pts
2. Dani Schultz (Morris/Benson Area) – 21GP 58G 36A = 94pts
3. Sara Rajewsky (Morris/Benson Area) – 21GP 37G 39A = 76pts
4. Rachel Bona (Coon Rapids) – 24GP 41G 31A = 72pts
5. Dani Cameranesi (Blake) – 24GP 31G 40A = 71pts
6. Hillary Crowe (Blake) – 24GP 42G 28A = 70pts
7. Lisa Marvin (Warroad) – 24GP 25G 44A = 69pts
8. Leah Jensen (East Grand Forks) – 25GP 49G 16A = 65pts
9. Karley Sylvester (Warroad) – 22GP 25G 40A = 65pts
10. Layla Marvin (Warroad) – 22GP 29G 35A = 64pts
Top 5 Goaltenders:
1. Shelby Amsley-Benzie (Warroad) – (20-3-0) .98GAA .953%SP
2. Julie Friend (Minnetonka) – (16-0-1) .81GAA .952%SP
3. Erika Allen (Roseville) – (8-4-0) 1.46GAA .946%SP
4. Erika Hansen (Centennial) – (14-6-1) 1.46GAA .944%SP
5. Erin Deters (Sartell / Sauk Rapids) – (12-7-1) 1.72GAA .944%SP
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