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The Minnesota Wild entered tonight’s game up two games to one against the Colorado Avalanche in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. They would leave the Pepsi Center in Colorado finding the series tied at two. It could have been the thin mountain air, or maybe exhaustion from playing in their third straight OT game the night before, but whatever the case, the Minnesota Wild suffered a severe meltdown in Game 4 of this series.

The final score was 5-1.

So far it has been a hard fought first three games for the Wild; They have only led for four minutes in the series. Tonight, however, they lost the composure that has carried the team through difficult situations in the past. The players began to get frustrated, and eventually began taking boneheaded penalties which cost them any opportunity to get back in the game.

Immediately after the puck drop, the Avalanche attacked the net hard and fast. 4:01 into the game the hometown Avalanche were up 1-0 with a goal from Andrew Brunette, sneaking a shot past Wild goalie, Niklas Backstrom, on the stick side. Then a minute and a half later, Wojtek Wolski made it 2-0. Wolski was standing in the crease, unchallenged and all alone, as he beat Backstrom the same way Brunette did; On the stick side. Following the goal, Mikko Koivu of Minnesota and Peter Forsberg of Colorado got fired up and shot some challenging words to one another. This interaction between key players on both sides added to the game’s intensity. 

Unfortunately for the Wild, the pendulum of momentum would swing in drastic favor of the Avalanche. Minnesota seemed to be off of their game, playing cautiously and not hitting as often as in the previous three match ups. This lack of physical play allowed Colorado to take over and dominate the tempo of the game.  With 11:08 gone by in the first period, Tyler Arnason beat Backstrom on the glove side. It was a shot that Backstrom should have had, but the score was now 3-0. By the end of the first period, Colorado had out shot Minnesota 18-7.

Enter the second period.

The Wild could only rely on goalie Niklas Backstrom to keep them in their games for so long (he made 44 saves in Game 3- a Minnesota franchise record), and when he faltered tonight, the Wild just quit. Only being down by 3 goals, instead of trying to score and come back to win, the Wild consistently took stupid, undisciplined penalties; slashing, roughing, boarding, tripping, hooking, the list goes on. By the end of the second period, the Avalanche would have a total of 8 power play opportunities. Two of those would have goals attached to them. The first was at 7:42 when Colorado defenceman, Ruslan Solei, would make Wild left winger, Todd Fedoruk, pay for taking an unnecessary tripping penalty. The second power play goal would come later in the period.

With the progression of the second period, the referee’s seemed to begin to call a tighter game when compared to the previous three match ups. The Wild weren’t able to adapt to this change of pace, and began to focus more on hitting and fighting Avalanche players as opposed to scoring goals on them.

Minnesota seemed to quit competing with the intention to win tonight’s game. They took many roughing and unsportsmanlike like conduct penalties throughout; Perhaps the most colorful of which coming from Derek Boogaard. When the Wild took a penalty immediately after killing one, Boogaard slapped the puck down the ice in frustration and followed that with a swift punch to the face of an Avalanche player. He received 12 minutes worth of box time, and since it happened with just under 12 minutes left to play in the second period, he was sent to the locker room. Shortly thereafter, the Avalanche would get 4 more minutes of power play time when Minnesota’s Eric Belanger took a roughing call.

Still, the Wild survived. 

Minnesota fans couldn’t hold onto hope for a comeback for long though, because with 3:46 left in the second, Backstrom was caught out of position, and Milan Hejduk took advantage on a different power play opportunity. Backstrom made a save off a shot from the point, but gave up the rebound and lost sight of the puck, leaving an entire side of the net open for Hejduk to score the easy goal. With a collapse that began with the defense and spread to the offense, which resulted in affecting the goaltender, the Minnesota Wild left the second period in complete disarray, down 5-0.

To start the third period, Josh Harding replaced Niklas Backstrom in the net for the Wild. Apparently, Jacques Lemaire decided to let Backstrom take the rest of the night off in order to not burn him out for the rest of the series.

Minnesota finally got on the scoreboard 3:11 into the third when Mikko Koivu scored a short handed goal. This was the teams second short handed goal of the series, and the fourth playoff goal for Koivu. He has scored in each game and has easily been Minnesota’s best skater of the post season.

Nearly 7 minutes later, Minnesota’s Stephane Veilleux and Colorado’s Ian Laperriere dropped the gloves and squared off in a lame staring match that resulted in some shoves, but no punches. It was an odd ‘fight’ because both players talked before the play started and seemed to mutually decide to go at it, but neither had the stones to throw the first punch. The refs ended up separating them with no damage done to either player.

Regardless, soon thereafter Derek Boogaard and Cody McLeod were sent to their respective locker rooms for the rest of the game, due to roughing penalties that looked more like unintimidating shoves than roughing. for the rest of the game, more silly and ineffective pushing followed, as well as more penalties, and an increased desire by both teams for the game to come to a close. The third period ended with a pointless post game brawl with each team trying to set the tone for Game 5, to be played on Thursday night. There were 36 penalties total in the game, 25 of those belonging to Minnesota.

As a Wild fan, it was disturbing to see the teams lack of focus as the game progressed. They seemed to believe that a 4-0 deficit in the second period was an insurmountable task to overcome as they continued taking silly penalties and ceased to try and win the game. Tonight, the teams slogan,”Fight to the end,” needed to be amended. With over 16 minutes to play, the Wild had plenty of time to score 4 goals; The Buffalo Sabres did it against the Tampa Bat Lightning! Yet, the team continued to take momentum hindering penalties that denied them any offensive opportunities. It appeared as though the Wild were hitting the Avalanche in order to wear them down in the long run; Minnesota coach Jacque Lemaire’s thinking being that as this series gets longer, the Avalanche will begin to get tired from being consistently hit. Entering tonight’s game, the Wild have outhit the Avalanche 76-50. Hopefully this plan will work. 

In what has thus far been the battle of the goalies, Colorado’s Jose Theodore scored a definite victory over Niklas Backstrom tonight- Theodore stopped the shots that Backstrom let in. Of course, the fact that Backstrom received no help from his defense and that the offense has been unable to consistently produce for four straight games should be taken into account. The Avalanche out shot the Wild 40-25 in tonight’s meeting. As a side note, Wild backup goalie Josh Harding made some standout saves during the third period in a lackluster effort by his team; And his gold pads looked pretty cool too.

If the Wild hope to win Game 5, they need to make some adjustments. The first of which is putting an end to a terrible scoring drought; Minnesota has yet to score in the first two periods throughout 4 games in this series. All of their goals have come in the third period. That needs to change. Also, they need to get more production out of super star right winger, Marian Gaborik. Gaborik had 42 goals in the regular season, but has yet to attain a point in the post season. In addition, the Wild need to put more people in front of the net. More times than I can remember in this series, they would send the puck out in front, but no one was there to take a shot (this happened especially in tonight’s game). Someone needs to get in Jose Theodore’s face, because he is too good without traffic in front of him. Finally, Minnesota needs to have better puck control in their own zone. They had too many turnovers tonight in their own end, especially early on when within 10 minutes the Avalanche had scored two goals off of four Wild turnovers. The Avalanche, on the other hand, need to play better in the third period (where they have allowed 9 goals), if they hope to win Game 5. They also need to continue to get outstanding goal tending from Jose Theodore.

Well, after four games played, the series is tied at 2-2. The next time the teams meet will be in St. Paul, Minnesota at the Xcel Center.

Despite tonights game, I still think the Wild will win the next two, thus taking the series in Game 6.

GO WILD!!

There is absolutely nothing like playoff hockey!

Tonight the Minnesota Wild played host to the Colorado Avalanche in Game 1 of their best of 7 series in the quest for Lord Stanley’s Cup. This game contained hard hitting action, great goals, and was the intense spectacle sports fans crave for once the post season arrives. These two teams last met in Colorado on Sunday April 6th, in their final game of the 2007-2008 regular NHL season. The Avalanche won that close meeting in a shoot out, 4-3. These teams also have a prior post season history; The Wild eliminated the Avalanche from the playoffs in 2003. They were down 1 game to 3 in the series, and facing elimination, won three straight to take the series 4 games to 3. Needless to say, bad blood exists between these two teams. Kind of like the post season rivalry between the Buffalo Sabres and the Carolina Hurricanes/Ottawa Senators. Despite the Sabres missing the playoffs by a frustrating 4 points this season, tonight made it easy for me to jump on the band wagon of the Minnesota Wild. Even if they did lose the game 3-2 in the first overtime period.

The beginning two periods of the game were frustrating for the Wild. Despite a valiant effort by Minnesota in checking, hitting, and putting pucks on net, the Avalanche were the ones who received the lucky bounces during the first forty minutes of play. After a scoreless first period, Kurt Sauer and Ryan Smyth both got the puck past Wild goalie Niklas Backstrom to take the lead by two. Also in the second period, Wild right winger Mark Parrish left the game after he took a nasty hit alongside the boards and injured his head. Still, the Wild fans helped to keep their players in the game as they would cheer every timea Minnesota player would drop an opponent to the ice with a big hit, which happened often. After two periods Minnesota out shot the Avalanche 20-7, but entered the third period being down 0-2.

Enter the third period. With 3:02 gone by, the Wild finally got a bounce and found the back of the net. In the Colorado zone, Mikko Koivu skillfully dodged an Avalanche player as he showed off some impressive stick skills, and flung the puck through traffic in an attempted pass to Brian Rolston who was in front of the net. Luckily, the puck bounced off of a defenders skate and slid past Jose Theodore to put the Wild on the board. Then three minutes and eleven seconds later, Todd Fedoruk (all alone in front of the net) used patience and impressive stick work to punch the puck past Theodore to tie the game 2-2 while on the power play. It took the Wild special teams unit five power play attempts to finally score, as they had 12 shots and 0 goals on their previous four. Moments before the goal, Wild super-star Marian Gaborik took a face crushing hit along the glass and Fedoruk responded by painfully crushing the Colorado player against the boards. And then he scored. After Fedoruktied the game, the camera panned immediately to the Wild bench as the entire team and coaching staff were going nuts. Games withthird period comebacks are always the most fun to watch, especially when the team you are cheering for is the one coming back! With Fedoruk’s goal, memories of the Sabres awesome third period comeback against the Lightning from a few weeks ago began to resurface. However, I then remembered that the Sabres weren’t in the playoffs.

The rest of the third period was hard hitting, fast paced, and very intense. With under ten minutes left to play, the Avalanche had managed to put only 12 shots on goal and yet the game was tied at two a piece. An interesting encounter happened when Colorado player Ryan Smyth very obviously tripped Minnesota’s Petteri Nummelin. Nummelinhad the puck and was leaving the Minnesota zone when his feet were taken out from underneathhim. He slid along the ice on his belly, and eventually crashed against the boards in front of the Wild bench. Smyth then looked up at the referee closest to him with his arms out, as if to say, “Yep. I’m getting a penalty.” But there was no whistle. He knew he tripped Nummelin. Everyone in the Xcel Center knew he tripped Nummelin. Every sports fan watching the game saw the trip. Yet, somehow none of the officials on the ice saw the play, even though the victimized player had possession of the puck. Regardless, the whistle never blew and Smyth was the first to realize it, and the play continued. He took the puck into the Minnesota zone all alone, and as the crowd reigned down their boos upon him, Smyth took a shot at Niklas Backstrom. Backstrom responded like a goalie who needs to keep his team in a close game, and he made a huge arm save to keep the score tied.  

With just under six minutes left in the third period, a Colorado goal was waved off when David Jones kicked the puck into the net. In the NHL, if a player kicks the puck into the net, it does not count as a goal. So the result was ‘no goal’! (heh) Then with 2:27 remaining in the game, a penalty shot was awarded to Smyth because Wild defenseman Keith Carney closed his hand around the puck during a scrum in front of the Minnesota net. This penalty shot was huge for both teams; With under three minutes to play in the game, a one goal lead is substantial. On the penalty shot, Smyth brought the puck in on Backstrom, did a fake, and then made a fore-handed shot. Backstrom responded with his second big save of the night on Ryan Smyth by falling into the A-Frame, and stopping the puck with his right pad. Despite the big save, the Avalanche took control of the momentum for the final two minutes of regulation, and carried that momentum into overtime.

Momentum is key in playoff hockey. In overtime, the game was less physical and both teams played more cautiously. No player wanted to risk making ‘that’ mistake. Unfortunately for the Wild, the more conservative game play aided the Avalanche. All game the Wild were playing fast and physical, but when they retreated into playing a more defensive style, Colorado took advantage of the situation. The Wild defense collapsed majorly for nearly a minute in the OT period, allowing Backstomto get pelted with shots. But the goalie stood tall and kept his team in it. . . Until Joe Sakic scored his 8th career overtime game winner of the post season. The puck went off of a player in front of the Minnesota net, and Sakic punched it home on the rebound with a backhand to win Game 1.

The Wild can’t hang their heads too long over this loss. Yes, they lost, but at the same time they out worked and out played their opponent for a large portion of the game, both physically and by out shooting them 30-22. They didn’t give up tonight despite being down by two goals in the third period. The team still managed to come back and force overtime, which is impressive in a playoff atmosphere. The Wild do need to improve on their special teams production, however, if they expect to make a serious run at The Cup. With 6 power play chances tonight, the Wild could only score on one of them despite getting at least 12 shots with the man advantage. Also, they let the Avalanche score on the power play, and they only had two of them. Looking across the ice, if the Colorado Avalanche expect to advance onto the next round of the playoffs, they need to realize that the Stanley Cup is not won by a winning one game, but by winning a series. Minnesota hit Colorado hard all night (except for the OT period), and if the Avalanche don’t want to get worn down by game 5, they need to step it up. Despite what the scoreboard says, for the majority of the game they were playing to Wild’s tempo and nearly getting caught lost in it. If not for outstanding goal tending by Jose Theodore, the Wild could have easily blown the game open early. Again, after two periods the Wild out shot the Avalanche 20-7. But in the end, the Avalanche stayed patient and received one more lucky bounce than the Wild.

This is only Game 1. I say the Wild win this series in 6.

GO WILD!!