Thomas Vanek is back in the goal scoring business

Saint Paul – As a Minnesota power play expired in the second period Saturday evening, Thomas Vanek held the puck near the outside of the right faceoff circle and appeared to be looking for someone to get open in front of the net.

Nothing doing.

So Vanek, who became something of a fans’ whipping boy a year ago when his numbers were less than gaudy during his first Wild season, teed up the puck and rifled a bullseye over the left shoulder of Anaheim Ducks goaltender Frederick Andersen.

“I had a little time there and I was looking for something, someone to pass it to,” Vanek said.

Nino Niederreiter skated in front, offering a screen, and Vanek pounced.

“I just went for it and it worked out perfect,” he said.

It was a true goal-scorer’s goal and pretty much what Minnesota fans expected from the former Gophers star last season, when Vanek was beset by injuries and struggled to stitch together a total of 21 goals.

This goal gave the Wild a 2-0 lead en route to a 3-0 victory over the struggling Ducks Saturday in front of 19,034 at the Xcel Energy Center, and it gave Vanek four goals in seven games this season and 302 goals in his career.

It might have been five and 303, but he had a goal taken away in the home opener against St. Louis when officials ruled the puck caromed into the net off linemate Charlie Coyle.

Vanek seemed unfazed by that decision, emphasizing later that it counted as a goal no matter who last touched it.

But the 31-year-old Austrian who led the Gophers to the 2003 NCAA title knows why the Wild signed him as a free agent in 2014 and what the fans expect.

His business card: Goal-scorer.

Never the fastest skater in the building, the 6-foot-2, 218-pounder looks like a different player this season. He’s well on his way to his 11^th consecutive 20-goal season because he’s healthy.

“Healthy,” he repeated Saturday. “A lot of guys play hurt, and I play hurt, too. Right now I’m not, and it’s good to be out there not lagging my leg behind. It feels nice.”

A year ago, hobbled by groin problems, the puck wasn’t going in for Vanek. He did not score his first goal of the season until his 10^th game, got his fourth goal in Minnesota’s 29^th game and seemed perfectly content to dish the puck to someone else.

Would he have shot in the second period a year ago?

Probably not.

“I love the fact that he’s shooting more pucks,” Wild coach Mike Yeo said. “Obviously, he’s got a great shot. I don’t know that he was taking those shots last year.”

Yeo says he sees a different Vanek this season, but not just because goals are coming.

“Him getting goals is one thing, but to me it’s as much about how he’s playing without the puck. He’s digging in to the system; he’s digging in defensively. When a player’s doing that stuff, obviously you’re real pleased that he gets rewarded for it,” Yeo explained.

Vanek said he felt zero pressure coming back a year ago to where he starred in college, but he’s definitely more comfortable in his second season with the Wild.

“I know I can score goals,” he said.

Knowing all the players, the coaches and the equipment staff from the start has allowed him to feel more at home, however.

But he’s not satisfied.

“I know I can be better,” he said. “I’ve still feel I’ve got a little bit more, but it’s a good start so far.”

Matt Dumba scored his first goal of the season late in the first period to get the Wild offense started, then displayed a major-league celebration. Ryan Carter’s short-handed goal late in the second period capped the goal-scoring, and Devan Dubnyk made 15 saves to record his first shutout of the season.

Anaheim, which took five of the game’s six penalties and hobbled away from the X with a 1-5-1 mark, recorded its lone victory against Minnesota a week ago. The turnabout on Saturday left the Wild with a terrific 5-1-1 record going into a Sunday game at Winnipeg.

Vanek will be there, looking to extend a two-game goal streak.

The post Vanek bringing offense to the Wild appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Wild do gallop when they get on their offensive horse

With Zach Parise, Jared Spurgeon and Marco Scandella back in the Minnesota lineup Sunday afternoon, the Wild did not seem to have many holes.

Heck, the back-on-track Wild displayed an interesting third line of Erik Haula, Thomas Vanek and Jason Zucker for their 4-3 home overtime victory over the Winnipeg Jets.

As the Wild inch toward the quarter pole of the 2014-15 season in the coming week, they mostly look like the potential contender that partisans were musing about after last spring’s mini-playoff run and the offseason signing of Vanek.

Two X factors are health, of course, and penalties.

The Wild dropped three of five games that Parise missed with a concussion, while Spurgeon, Scandella, Matt Cooke, Keith Ballard and Christian Folin have also been sidelined so far, not to mention No. 3 goalie Josh Harding.

Through 17 games, the Wild have lost 44 man-games to illness and injury, but this team has persevered.

While Spurgeon missed five games because of a shoulder injury and Scandella two because of illness, players such as Ryan Carter, fellow PK-specialist Kyle Brodziak and youngsters Nino Niederreiter, Haula and several others have chipped in.

Ryan Carter has played a strong two-way game since the Wild signed him days before the season opener. (MHM Photo / Jeff Wegge)

Who figured Carter would turn into an offensive force?

The White Bear Lake product has become the surprising offseason pickup and went into Sunday’s game against the Jets tied with Vanek, Niedlerreiter, Ryan Suter, Charlie Coyle and Jason Pominville for second in team scoring with nine points, just one behind Parise.

Carter’s setup of Haula for a short-handed goal in a 2-1 road victory over the Dallas Stars on Saturday turned that game around.

Vanek picked up another assist Sunday to give him nine assists and 10 points, and most folks who watched him tear up the offensive zone when he was a University of Minnesota player for two seasons expect him to resume finding the net in his adopted home town.

His lack of goals puts him in good company – Mikko Koivu, Mikael Granlund and Coyle each have just two.

Nevertheless, Vanek, Koivu, Granlund, Coyle and others remain key ingredients in an offense that controls the puck, outshoots nearly every opponent and gives a breather to an able defense anchored by Ryan Suter, Spurgeon, Scandella and Jonas Brodin plus goaltenders Darcy Kuemper and Nik Backstrom.

The other team can’t score if it doesn’t have the puck.

One key to this, of course, is Parise. The former North Dakota star plays in nothing but high gear, rarely loses a puck battle and sets the intensity bar on 10 every time he’s on the ice.

His two goals Sunday gave him a team-high 12 points in 12 games played.

The math on that is pretty easy.

Wild coach Mike Yeo noted that it hardly matters that Parise scored two goals without using his stick Sunday, because Parise gets rewarded for doing things the right way.

“He doesn’t take short cuts,” Yeo said. “When we talked about doing something before the game and draw it up on the board, and then that first goal goes in because he does exactly what we were talking about.

“That’s leadership.”

The Wild took eight penalties in the second period to waylay their momentum and put themselves in a five-on-three disadvantage three times Sunday, which helped the Jets rally.

But Scandella stepped in to contribute his first overtime goal and third of the season to end it.

“We’re a resilient group here,” Scandella said. “We worked hard and didn’t break.”

Parise watched the Wild stumble some while he was sidelined.

Sunday, their stumbling was less noticeable.

“At least tonight, when we weren’t penalty killing, when we weren’t in the box, we played fast, we pressured them, we forced them into mistakes,” he said. “And then we got into penalty trouble.”

“Things happen,” Yeo said. “I like that we re-grouped and went after it. We got back on the attack, and that’s the way we have to play the game. We’re a team that dictates and initiates. When we play that way we’re effective and when we don’t, we’re not so much.”

With 65 games remaining, how those factors develop will reveal a lot.

The post Brothers: Wild Still a Good Bet appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

 Niederreiter, Spurgeon help Wild snap skid

Smiles returned to the Wild dressing room Thursday night.

“We knew we needed that,” Wild coach Mike Yeo said.

All it took was a visit by the Buffalo Sabres – is it too early for the Sabres to be vying for the top draft pick next June? – as the Wild scored three goals within 3:14 of the first period en route to snapping a four-game losing streak.

On Military Appreciation Night at the Xcel Energy Center, fans had plenty to appreciate as the home team sauntered to a 6-3 victory.

Ryan Carter and Nino Niederreiter scored just seven seconds apart to erase a 1-0 deficit, and after the Sabres tied the score 10 seconds later, Kyle Brodziak returned the lead to Minnesota at the 9:21 mark of the first period.

Niederreiter notched his first NHL hat trick.

“The victory was definitely very huge for us,” he said.

Although Buffalo’s record dropped to 3-13-2, last in the NHL, no one in the Wild dressing room was underselling this win.

“That’s the kind of game we needed,” Carter said. “I don’t care what their record was.”

Minnesota defenseman Jared Spurgeon logged heavy minutes and contributed a goal in his return from a five-game injury absence. (Photo by Bruce Kluckhohn/NHLI via Getty Images)

The Wild pelted Buffalo with 20 shots on goal in the first period, then eased off on the throttle and coasted. It didn’t seem to matter much, thanks to the play of Jared Spurgeon and Ryan Suter on the blue line and the goaltending of Nik Backstrom.

Spurgeon, especially.

The 5-foot-9 defender from Edmonton, Alberta, returned to the lineup after missing five games with an injured shoulder and made a difference all evening, a difference more noticeable because Wild defensemen Marco Scandella and Jonas Brodin were sidelined by the mumps.

“We couldn’t ease him back in,” Yeo said of Spurgeon.

Hardly.

Spurgeon played more than 22 minutes over the first two periods and finished his evening with 29 minutes, 27 seconds of ice time, one goal, eight shots on goal, one takeaway and one blocked shot. His eight shots were three more than anyone else and his ice time was just three seconds less than Suter’s.

“I just tried to get back into it as fast as possible,” he said. “Playing with ‘Sutes’ is pretty easy.”

Nearly everyone in the home sweaters seemed to make it look easy against the lowly Sabres, who coincidentally arrived on Minnesota’s schedule on Jan. 2 when the Wild were immersed in a six-game losing streak, just in time to help them turn things around.
After the struggling Wild power play controlled the puck for the whole two minutes but failed to score on their first man advantage Thursday night, the crowd of 18,925 applauded. The Wild were then 2 for 45 this season, but finally got power-play goals from Niederreiter and Spurgeon and finished 2 for 4 for the night.

This was a game when it was often difficult to tell when Minnesota had a power play because it had the puck most of the time. Shots were 39-28 and the Wild still have not been outshot this season.

When the Sabres did get a chance, Backstrom was there for 25 saves.

Backstrom came into the game at the 6:24 mark after Buffalo tied the score 2-2 with just its second shot on Darcy Kuemper, and showed he had moved past his last game, a 3-0 loss to Ottawa on Nov. 6.

The Wild got a little sloppy after taking a 5-2 lead, but finished strong enough to record their first victory since Nov. 1.

That was against Dallas.

Now they travel to Dallas to play the Stars again Saturday afternoon before a home game Sunday afternoon against the Winnipeg Jets.

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