Wild players take shooting skills off the ice, into the field

It was the first bird they saw that day. The small, energetic yellow lab, Izzy, flushed it out of a row of corn and with an ear-ringing blast, Nate Olson fired and hit his mark.

He looked over at Wild defenseman Keith Ballard and quipped, “you want the next shot?”

It was a day that could succinctly be summed up as fun. Four Minnesota Wild fans and their guests got to spend an afternoon pheasant hunting with a Wild player on Saturday afternoon at Wild Wings at Oneka Hunt Club in Hugo, Minnesota.

Olson was one of four winners in the Gander Mountain “Hunt with the Wild” sweepstakes. He brought along his father, Steve, as the two have hunted together ever since Nate was a young boy in Hancock, Minnesota where Steve lives. While they were paired with Ballard, forwards Ryan Cater, Kyle Brodziak and Justin Fontaine also took part in the experience.

Each winner received a guided pheasant hunt with a member of the Wild, along with a catered lunch and dinner, an autograph signing session and gifts from Gander Mountain. Hunters were also outfitted with field wear from Browning, boots from Irish Setter and shotguns from Benelli.

Ballard, who enjoys hunting when he can, noted that the day was a nice break from hockey and an interesting way to interact with fans.

“That’s what’s fun about it; it’s away from hockey and away from the rink,” Ballard said. “And it’s something that they’re interested in and it’s something that I enjoy doing.

“It’s nice to get away from hockey a little bit. It’s a long season. And it’s only half a day but to get your mind off it and do something else or think about something else — which is very important. You can drive yourself crazy sometimes if you don’t.”

Saturday marked the second installment of the hunt. Last year was the first, which the defenseman also participated in, along with former Wild defenseman Clayton Stoner.

Olson, a Golden Valley native, wasn’t aware of last year’s hunt, but heard about this year’s event through Facebook and figured he would sign up.

“I was surprised when I got a call; I thought they were trying to sell me something, to be honest,” Olson joked. “They were like ‘want to hunting next weekend?’ And well, I was like ‘Yeah, I’ll go hunting.’”

While the exchange was simple and understated, Olson enjoyed to opportunity to get to know a player from one of his favorite teams and share the experience with his dad. While it was his first time at Wild Wings, Olson would recommend the experience to anyone interested in the future.

“They’ve been great hosts and we got all sorts of great gear,” Olson said. “It’s been awesome.”

While Ballard likes to hunt, the last time he was able to spend an extended amount of time hunting was during the lockout two years ago. Being from Minnesota, it’s a lifestyle he’s grown up with and truly enjoys. It’s made even better now that he’s back in his home state.

After a long day in the field, all the groups shared a nice meal of pheasant potpie and got the chance to talk about their experiences — and of course brag about how they fared.

As a veteran of the event, Ballard was quick to note that the end of the day meal was one of the best parts.

“The hunting is a lot of fun, the pheasant potpie is outstanding.”

The post Players, fans find wild game outdoors appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Minnesota stages second consecutive third-period rally

Kyle Brodziak had the kind of start to this season that must have had him wondering about his hockey future.

Dispatched to the press box as an observer for five consecutive games, Brodziak got into just his fourth game of the season Thursday night and responded with two goals as the Wild rallied to force overtime and then defeated the San Jose Sharks 4-3 in a shootout.

He had difficulty removing the postgame smile from his mug after he converted two pinpoint Thomas Vanek passes to erase a 3-1 Sharks lead over the final 15 minutes of the third period.

“It definitely feels good,” Brodziak said.

No doubt.

A lunch-bucket center who had 22 goals and 22 assists during the 2011-12 season, Brodziak became a punchline for fans who could not grasp during the past two seasons why so many of his great chances hit a goalpost or a goaltender’s pads.

Before the season, Brodziak admitted that it was getting to him, as well.

At age 30 and in the final season of a three-year contract, he has gone from an occasional top-six Minnesota forward to a guy who scored just eight goals in 81 games last season and this season became healthy scratch for the first time in his career.

Always approachable and friendly, Brodziak shook his head about it Thursday after he was selected as the No. 1 star of a game won on shootout goals by Mikko Koivu and Jason Pominville.

“I’m definitely not the first guy that’s ever gone through it,” he said. “You’ve just got to stay positive and keep working hard so when you get the opportunity you can make the best of it.”

Brodziak’s play in front of 18,633 Xcel Energy Center customers delivered a statement about what the Wild appear to be made out of this season.

Erik Haula, Matt Cooke and Jonas Brodin missed the game because of injuries, and defenseman Jared Spurgeon crashed into the boards and left after playing just three shifts in the third period.

Minnesota started the third period trailing for the second consecutive game after blowing a three-goal lead in the third period Monday night against the New York Rangers, but for the second consecutive game the Wild roared back.

“That’s huge, to see that character in our team and what we can do in the third period there,” Wild forward Charlie Coyle said.

“We don’t want to be known as a team that folds in the third period,” forward Jason Zucker said.

The Wild needed a strong third period after playing fairly ragged through the first 30 minutes. Minnesota had just one hit in the first period and seven turnovers through two periods as the Sharks, despite being outshot all evening, climbed in front.

But the Wild did exactly what coach Mike Yeo wanted.

“What’s real important for us is another emotional win,” Yeo said, noting that two comeback victories in succession demonstrated that his team has, perhaps, has “learned a lesson.”

Pominville was a minus-2 before scoring the clinching shootout goal, but said the key statistic after some sloppy early play was the win.

“We didn’t have much going on,” he said. “We stuck with it. Again, it shows the type of locker room we have.”

Here are a few elements of what they have: Vanek, still without a goal this season, now leads the Wild with seven assists. Zucker scored a point in his fourth consecutive game. Goalie Darcy Kuemper stopped 25 of 28 shots and raised his record to 5-2 with a 1.70 goals-against mark. Koivu scored just his second goal of the season but won 22 of 28 faceoffs, put nine shots on goal and scored his 37th shootout goal.

The captain came in for special praise from Yeo.

“Every aspect of his game I was really impressed with,” Yeo said. “He was good at both ends of the ice and, no question, he was a strong leader for us.”

Yeo also liked the play of the Broziak-Vanek-Justin Fontaine line.

“Those guys were moving,” he said.

Brodziak insisted it was a team effort.

“You look at our lineup, everybody seems to be going,” he said. “Now, when I get back in, it’s definitely fun to be a part of it.”

The post Brodziak comes alive, sparks Wild comeback appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

SAINT PAUL — The Minnesota Wild continued their hot streak as they prepare for the playoffs and  made a statement against the St. Louis Blues by earning a 4-2 victory at the Xcel Energy Center on Thursday night.  The win was the fourth in a row for the Wild who improved their record to 6-0-1 in their last seven games and it answered their recent dismal performance in St. Louis a few weeks back with a positive result and effort that could have an impact through the playoffs.

With Jared Spurgeon, Justin Fontaine, and Stephane Veilleux scratched from the lineup for the Wild, Minnesota turned to Shorewood native John Curry to man the pipes.  He became the fifth goaltender to play for the Wild this season.  Curry turned aside 43 shots, some from scrambles and one that was a terrific glove save from point blank range to give the Wild another high caliber goaltending performance.  Current number one goalie Ilya Bryzgalov was given the night off for much needed rest and to prepare for the post season.

The game was the first at the NHL level for Curry in four years who last played for the Pittsburgh Penguins in  the 2010 campaign and posted a 2-2 record.  Curry played for the Orlando Solar Bears of the ECHL and the Iowa Wild this season.  He had a stellar career for Boston University where he posted a 59-29-15 over his three seasons of full time play.

“I just tried to take it shot by shot,” Curry said of his game. “It was good to get a good start.  I sat all day, I’ll be honest with you, I was so nervous for this game, it’s such a big stage for me.  To have a good start and get those first few saves gets you into the rhythm and you just fall right into it.”

He was tasked with playing a Blues team that battered and bruised the Wild to the tune of a 5-1 loss in their last meeting on March 27th in St. Louis.  “I knew just based on video and seeing that team and knowing how good they are, they were going throw a lot of pucks at the net and get a lot of traffic to the net and that was certainly the case,” Curry said of the Blues. “Just thankful for the way the guys played, a lot of loose pucks bouncing around the net and a lot of good clears.”

Both teams exchanged goals through the second period yet the Wild carried a 3-2 lead into the third period.  Nino Niederreiter, Kyle Brodziak, and Matt Moulson scored for Wild who were out-shot 28-12 through two periods.  Brodziak added his second goal of the game and quieted the chirps that have been raining on him from the local fans and media alike regarding his lake of offensive production this year.

“It was a big win for us and we know that they are a very strong team and we know they could be a possible playoff opponent,” Niederreiter said.  “We had to make sure we played hard against them and make sure if that is the case it’s gong to be a tough one.”

The Blues not only lost the game, but they may have lost forward T.J. Oshie for what could be an unknown period of time who was drilled by Wild forward Mike Rupp.  The blow from Rupp was whistled as a major and a game misconduct.   Not only did the Wild have to kill a five minute major, they found themselves starting it with a five-on-three as Marco Scandella also received a minor penalty for high sticking.

The Blues Kevin Shattenkirk scored to even the game at two with the five on three, but Brodziak reclaimed the lead for the Wild at 3-2  just 1:19 later on a short handed effort.  “It was a big kill,” Brodziak said. “Especially after they got a goal on the five on three, we were able to respond like that was a big point of the game.”

The game continued the upward trend of the Wild who have been playing a solid defensive structured game and were able to continue their success with new faces in the line up.  Newly signed defenseman Christian Folin from UMass Lowell made his NHL debut and assisted on Brodziak’s second goal of the game that gave Minnesota the final margin at 4-2.

“I was very thankful to get the opportunity no matter how it went,” Curry said of the start.  “Just based on my career you don’t get many of these so it’s good to have success and to play well when you get the chance.”

The Wild were thankful that for the fifth time this season a different goalie has taken the crease and delivered a jaw dropping performance.  The playoffs are less than a week away and to be trending upward is a place any team would like to be.  Standing up to the dominance the Blues exerted over the Wild in recent meetings, 6-0-3 against Minnesota prior to Thursday night,  will take Minnesota a long way in their effort to move out of the first round and deeper into the playoffs regardless who their first round opponent is.

The post Curry leads Wild past Blues appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Featured Image:
Jason Pominville
(Getty Images/Bruce Kluckhohn)

Wild do the little things right to down Sabres and end skid …

The dark cloud casting an ever-increasing shadow of doom over the Minnesota Wild dressing room recently gave way to a sliver of daylight on Thursday night at Xcel Energy Center. On the strength of three second-period goals, the Wild managed to defeat the lowly Buffalo Sabres 4-1 in front of 18,229 to snap a franchise high six-game losing streak.

Goals by Marco Scandella, Jason Pominville and Jason Zucker in the middle stanza gave Minnesota its second such lead at home in five days. Unlike Sunday’s debacle against the Islanders, however, the Wild managed to maintain its lead to record their first win since a beating Vancouver in a shootout on Dec. 17 in St. Paul.

“We needed that for sure, but we did it the right way, which is big,” Wild coach Mike Yeo said of the win. “That’s what we said after last game, that we have to take some of the things that we did and improve on some of the things that we weren’t quite good enough at but [it was] a pretty complete game tonight.”

Wild center Kyle Brodziak, capped off the scoring with an empty net goal without even taking a shot. Brodziak’s 30-game goal drought ended when Buffalo’s Christian Erhoff hauled him down as he carried the puck toward an empty net. The officials awarded Brodziak his third goal of the season, ruling he would have scored.

“He was going to score. He was going to go top shelf, for sure,” Yeo said, unable to keep a straight face and eliciting laughter from the media. “But he earned that goal with his play; he was good all night.”

Pominville tallied his team-leading 18th of the season and second in two games against his former team, each of them holding up as game winners. He admitted shooting on Sabres and newly-named U.S. Olympic goalie Ryan Miller is still difficult to get used to.

“He’s in a pretty unique class of goalies,” Pominville said. “I think we played 11 years together so he knows everything I’ve got so I just shut my eyes and threw it on net and found a way [to score].”

Wild goaltender Niklas Backstrom, however, outdueled Miller, making 19 saves to snap a personal eight-game losing streak. The win, just his second in regulation this season and first since Oct. 26, and raised his record to 3-9-2.

Backstrom, who wasn’t supposed to play against Buffalo but was forced into action when the team learned earlier in the day Josh Harding was unavailable due to illness, diminished any suggestions the game offered any sort of personal redemption.

“You try to approach the same way every day, it doesn’t matter if you play good or you play bad,” Backstrom said. “You go out there and work as hard as you can and when you do that, good things are going to happen. You can’t focus on what happened in the past. You just approach the same way every day and believe in what you’re doing. It’s been working, so it’s going to be there sooner or later.”

But his effort was not lost on his teammates.

“We’re really excited for Backy,” Pominville said. “He played really well and I think we all know he was going through a bit of a tough-go. We weren’t scoring a lot of goals when he was playing, so just to get the lead for him tonight was huge and for him to stand tall when he needed to was huge for the team.”

Captains Ryan Suter and Mikko Koivu each had two assists and were a combined plus-4 to contribute to what Yeo termed as a complete game.

“We had everybody show up and play hard and play the right way tonight, and I thought that started with our leaders, there’s no question,” Yeo said. “I’ve said this many times: That’s what we need those guys to do.”

Terms like “details” and “the little things” were used repeatedly in the Wild dressing room and attention to those were critical to a Minnesota team 5-12-1 in its past 18 games looking to get out of its funk.

“We did all the small things, all the details right,” Backstrom said. “Shift after shift, we did the right things. That’s something you have to build on.”

“If you look at it, we didn’t do anything special but we did a lot of good things right and all the little details right,” Pominville said. “That led to us out-shooting them and for the most part out-playing them.

“We needed points bad and we need to keep headed in that direction.”

The post One in a Row appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

If the density of number 22 jersey’s filling seats wasn’t proof that he fell more in the beloved category than the hated, the applause that filled the building during a first period tribute to the returning warrior, surely was.

Tonight, “Know Your Enemy” takes on a friend turned foe who remains a supporter of the boys who now oppose him. With that being said, let’s get reacquainted with a former child of the strong and wild, New York Islanders forward, Cal Clutterbuck.

On a hot July morning this past summer, Cal Clutterbuck stood outside of Glen Abbey Golf Club in Oakville, Ontario Canada surrounded by Josh Harding, Kyle Brodziak and Tom Gilbert, men, who until recently had not only been trusted friends, but teammates. The men stood quietly chatting, all wearing orange shirts, preparing to golf in the NHLPA’s 21st annual golf classic in the pursuit of raising money for Harding’s Hope.

“Charity events are definitely important,” said Cal before tee off time, “but this one hits a little closer to home, having spent the last year and a half with Josh, it takes on a whole new meaning and it’s the least we can do to be here to support him.”

Cal would go on to lead his foursome of golfers to victory, banking $40,000 for Harding’s Hope and supporting his friend in the process. He also commented on his fresh trade to the Islanders on that hot July morning and while there was no predicting what would come to pass in coming months, he was ready to take on a new challenge in hockey.

“I think it’s a good opportunity for me and a bit of a different scenario. It’s a younger team and kind of growing into maturity,” said Clutterbuck, “I’m looking forward to getting in there with the team at a good stage and growing with them. I think it’ll be a good place for me and for my family as well.”

Unfortunately for Clutterbuck, he suffered a severe leg laceration from a skate during the first exhibition game of the season and found himself sidelined for an extended period of time.

“My injury at the start of the year was pretty tough and it was hard to come back from that.” He continued, “I missed all of training camp but I think things are starting to pick up for me and I’m starting to find my way.”

(MHM Photo/Jeff Wegge)

Injury aside, adjusting to a new city and team can be a challenging all on it’s own, something that Cal commented on, saying, “It’s a lot different even with just coming to the rink every day, coming to a different building, different people. It’s an adjustment period in itself to just get used to your surroundings and the people that are around you every day. Once you get over that I think it’s pretty easy.”

While the adjustment to his new surroundings may have been relatively smooth, Cal says, “It’s not Edina, Minnesota but it’ll do.”

Clutterbuck also felt the video montage welcoming him “home” was nice but unnecessary and when asked about the night he simply stated, “It was nice coming back tonight. Obviously it’s tough playing against some guys who are friends but it was fun. It was a different experience and obviously my first time doing that so I had a blast.”

Whether or not you consider Cal Clutterbuck to be a friend, foe or stuck in that gray relationship area known as a frenemy, there is no denying that at the end of the day he is a player and a man who stands solidly behind his teammates—both past and present—his family and the communities who cheer for him no matter which team colors or number are on his back.

~Quick facts about the NHLPA Charity Golf Classic mentioned in this article courtesy of the NHLPA:

* The tournament has raised over $3.2 Million for various charities throughout the years.

* This year the players competed for a total charity purse of $100,000, with the winning team receiving $40,000 for their designated charity, followed by $25,000 and so on.

* Team captains were: Josh Harding (Harding’s Hope); David Clarkson (Clarky’s Kids); Cory Conacher (JDRF); Marty Biron (Harding’s Hope); Chris Campoli (Look Good Feel Better).

* The following players were playing for Josh’s charity: Dominic Moore, Kyle Brodziak, Cal Clutterbuck, Tom Gilbert; Dwayne Roloson and Marty Biron.

*Make sure you’re following @MNHockeyMag on Twitter for all of our latest articles, game updates and events! You can also follow the author of this article @AmySnow17!*

The post Know Your…Frenemy? New York Islanders Cal Clutterbuck appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.