Four-goal second-period blitz shifts momentum Minnesota’s way

St. Paul – Suddenly, we have a series.

In the eyes of many disenchanted Minnesota hockey fans, the Wild looked like they would be unable to do anything in the Stanley Cup Playoffs but absorb four straight playoff losses to the muscular Winnipeg Jets.

Until Sunday night.

With heaps of snow bringing back memories of February — they went 9-4-3 that month — the Wild executed a quick 180 to snuff out the high-flying Jets 6-2 in front of 19,175 at the Xcel Energy Center.

“We got a life, now,” winger Zach Parise said.

After the Jets dominated the first two games in Winnipeg, they grabbed a 1-0 lead on a softy that squirted past goalie Devan Dubnyk 4:50 into the first period Sunday.

“It didn’t defelate us by any means,” Parise said.

Apparently not.

Wild forwards Eric Staal and Jason Zucker celebrate Staal’s first goal of the series on the second period of Minnesota’s 6-2 win over the Winnipeg Jets in Game 3 of there first round Stanley Cup Playoff series on Sunday night at Xcel Energy Center. (MHM Photo / Jeff Wegge)

Mikael Granlund banged in the rebound of a Mikko Koivu shot on a Minnesota power play midway through the first period, and the Wild netted five of the ensuing six goals to pull within 2-1 in the best-of-7 series.

“We needed that — a little pushback on these guys that we knew we were more than capable of,” Dubnyk said. “And we needed to win the game, plain and simple.”

Three games down and things have changed.

“We were good in the first two, and they didn’t like their game,” Jets coach Paul Maurice said. “They were good tonight and we didn’t like our game.”

The win was a team effort for a Wild lineup that at times appeared unable to keep up with the Jets during the two games in Winnipeg.

“I thought we got really good games from our big players,” Wild coach Bruce Boudreau said.

Go down the line: Eric Staal scored his first goal of these playoffs and added an assist, Parise scored his third, Koivu was a force and tallied two assists, Granlund had a goal and an assist, Nick Seeler picked up two assists and a few key blocked shots, Matt Dumba netted the game-winner and an assist, Marcus Foligno got his first goal of the playoffs plus three big hits, and Jordan Greenway bagged his first goal as a pro.

“That shows a lot of good things about our team.” Greenway said. “We got scoring from our top two lines and we got secondary scoring, too. Everyone’s pushing in the right direction.”

Factor in an air-tight defense that blocked 20 Winnipeg shots compared to eight blocks by the Jets and you have the recipe for a win.

Hits — such a factor in Winnipeg — were 26-19 in favor of the Jets but did not seem to faze the home team.

“It’s a physical series,” Granlund said. “It’s fun to be out there — there’s a lot of contact and a lot of emotion.”

Midway through the final period the result became so obvious that some in the big crowd took note of the four-goal lead and the wintry weather and chose to exit the premises a little early for what they expected to be a snow-slowed ride home.

Like the Wild, they could look forward to a rematch two nights later at the X.

One more Minnesota win and the series will come back to the X for Game 6 next Sunday.

The post Wild Push Back appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Defenseman’s record-setting night helps Wild to 5-2 win over Dallas

St. Paul — Love him or hate him, Matt Dumba’s impact on a game rarely goes unnoticed. 

Opinions vary on his contribution to the Minnesota Wild, but the opinions are strong either way. There is no Switzerland when it comes to the 23-year-old Dumba who is in his fifth season patrolling, and sometimes abandoning, the Minnesota blue line. 

He will dumbfound you with his decision making and defense as he has in recent overtime losses to Los Angeles and Boston yet has the ability to dazzle with is offense as he did in the Wild’s 5-2 win over the Dallas Stars on Thursday night at Xcel Energy Center.

Minnesota D Matt Dumba battles Dallas’ Tyler Seguin in the Wild’s 5-2 win over the Stars on Thursday night at Xcel Energy Center. (MHM Photo / Jeff Wegge)

Dumba scored goal and added a trio of assists as Minnesota recovered from an early deficit to win the first of a home-and-home set with the Stars which concludes Saturday in Dallas. The win eliminates the Stars as a threat to Minnesota’s playoff hopes.

The four-point night is not only a career high, but a franchise record for points by a Wild defenseman in a single game. The Regina, Saskatchewan native’s 12 goals this season are a personal best and he extended personal highs in assists (34) and points (46).

Dumba now has 21 points (3-18–21) in his last 28 games, including eight points (2-6–8) in his last seven. 

With Jared Spurgeon missing his seventh game due to a hamstring tear, Minnesota’s top defensive pair of Dumba and Ryan Suter have been logging a ton of minutes.

The duo was tested even further on Thursday when Gustav Olafsson, inserted into the lineup in place of Nick Seeler after sitting out three games, was lost in the first period to an upper-body injury leaving him unlikely to travel to Dallas on Friday.

Dumba’s second period period power-play goal was vintage Dumba, blasting a one-timer from the left circle off a feed from Suter which Dallas goaltender Kari Lehtonen likely never saw.  

With two assists on Thursday, Suter set a franchise record for assists by a Wild defenseman in a single season with 45 which is also a career high. 

“When Oly goes out and you have to go down to five and they play 26 and 30 minutes, respectively, and he gets four points, I think that’s what you need” Minnesota coach Bruce Boudreau said. “When your top two D play like that, your usually successful.”

A minute later, Dumba’s pass sent Mikael Granlund into the Dallas zone where he undressed Stars defenseman Greg Pateryn before one-handing a perfect cross-crease pass to a crashing Zach Parise for a tap-in goal, his 11th of the season.

“Dumbs had an unbelievable pass from all the way in our zone and then I kind of wanted to shoot it but (Pateryn) closed it down,” said Granlund, whose shorthanded goal in the first period got Minnesota on the board. “I just tried to go around him and Zach was in the right spot.”

Nearly as impressive as the pass was Parise’s reaction to it after he scored. The look on Parise’s face was that of a man in awe of the gift he had just received.

“He makes those plays a lot, he gives you those tap ins and those freebies so I can’t say I was surprised,” Parise said of Granlund. “That was a world-class play.”

Dumba later helped set up Jason Zucker’s 31st goal of the season, a power-play goal with 11 seconds remaining in the second period. The fourth and final point of Dumba’s night came on Parise’s second of the game, an empty-net goal, with another helper from Granlund.

The post Dumba Points The Way appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Stopping opponents has been Wild’s key

ST. PAUL — Nearly halfway through the 2016-17 season, the Minnesota Wild have assumed a heady position in the NHL.

A 12-game December win streak enabled the Wild to close out 2016 with a gaudy 23-9-4 record, placing them clearly in the hunt for a division championship and probably more.

Goaltender Devan Dubnyk, one of the key reasons for Minnesota’s success, said on New Year’s Eve that the Wild demonstrated in December precisely how well they match up against the best in the league.

“We were playing the right way and playing how we can, winning games how we can,” he said, consoling himself after the disappointment of a 4-2 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets Dec. 31 in a battle of winning streaks.

The Wild, he pointed out, “were getting contributions top to bottom in the lineup. That’s really why we are a great hockey team: We’ve got a lot of depth and we showed that throughout those 12 games.

“We’re going to be capable of putting streaks together from now through the end of the year, and we need to do that.”

After the calendar flips to a new year, bringing with it a time for reflection, the Wild really have little reason to feel anything but optimistic.

Although their win extended the Blue Jackets’ victory streak to 15, the fact that they became the third team in four games to score four goals against Minnesota represented the only real blemish on the Wild’s December.

It was a neon sign to coach Bruce Boudreau.

“We’ve gotten away from the way we play,” Boudreau said after the loss. “Most likely because we’ve been scoring goals. You end up changing your mindset as an individual when you score goals.”

The Wild’s calling card has not been and will not become that of a prolific scoring team. Success has stemmed from a defense able to smoothly remove the puck from Minnesota’s zone, one backstopped by superlative goaltending from Dubnyk.

Boudreau gathered his troops after the loss to Columbus and told them they must win games 2-1 and 3-2.

Goalie play has been a season-long factor in such a scheme.

Dubnyk closed out the 2016 portion of the schedule with a brilliant 19-7-3 record including five shutouts, a 1.75 goals-against average and a .941 save percentage, establishing a franchise-record 10-game winning streak in the process.

Even though the Wild outscored their opponents 48-26 between Dec. 4 and Jan. 1, Boudreau said the team’s shutdown defense was the primary reason for all the W’s. Therefore, he noted without a hint of a smile, a 2-1 loss in January might leave him with a better aftertaste than a 5-4 victory.

“I’d like to personally see us getting down to two goals or less against,” he said.

That would result in wins. In pro sports, life is good when you win.

For example: December’s 12-game streak. Never before had the Wild won more than nine games in a row.

“What we did was pretty amazing,” Boudreau said.

“A fun stretch,” said forward Mikael Granlund, who collected 15 points in the final 12 games of 2016 and 29 points in 36 games. “Everybody came to the rink smiling.”

Granlund, Jason Zucker, Nino Niederreiter, Eric Staal, Mikko Koivu, Jared Spurgeon, Charlie Coyle and Ryan Suter have led Minnesota’s balanced offense, along with able assists from fourth-liners such as Chris Stewart and Jordan Schroeder.

Everybody seemed to contribute during the win streak, resulting in a total team assuredness that allowed the Wild to push back against Columbus on Dec. 31, even after falling behind 4-1.

On that evening they stopped yielding scoring chances in the best way: by possessing the puck.

“We know how we need to play to be successful,” Granlund noted, adding that the four-day period between New Year’s Eve and the first game of 2017 would provide the team time to re-discover its winning formula before hitting the road. “Let’s get ready for the next trip.”

Said Zucker: “We want to be in the upper echelon in this league. If we want to do that, we have to be able to put runs together and battle through and battle against the top teams.”

The Blue Jackets might be one of the NHL’s best teams at the beginning of the new year, Zucker said, but the Wild are right there, too.

The post Defense Cannot Rest appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Mikael Granlund is on a roll for Minnesota

It’s becoming almost automatic these days: Mikael Granlund registers a goal, an assist or a near-goal practically every game for the Wild.

Granlund, at age 24, has definitely proved to be a worthy first-round pick for Minnesota in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft.

When he faked Ian Cole of the Pittsburgh Penguins nearly out of his britches in the second period of the Wild’s 6-2 victory the day after Thanksgiving, it gave the Finn eight points in a stretch of eight games and at least a point in 10 of his team’s past 15 games.

“I didn’t really have time to think; it just happened,” Granlund said. “Glad it went in.”

Granlund has been so good that, after he registered two assists on Thanksgiving eve in a win over Winnipeg, coach Bruce Boudreau said his plan is to simply leave the guy alone.

“I don’t talk to him because I just want him to keep doing what he’s doing,” Boudreau said with a smile. “Every time he touches the puck, you think he can beat a guy.”

Midway through the third period Friday, Granlund set up Jonas Brodin for a magnificent power-play shot that was saved by Pittsburgh’s Marc-Andre Fleury.

(Photo by Jaylynn Nash For MHM)

That and his earlier goal were the kinds of play expected by Wild fans from the 5-foot-10 forward who was rookie of the year in Finland with 40 points in 43 games in 2010 and twice led Finland to bronze medals in world junior tournaments.

Through the Wild’s first 20 games, Granlund stood tied for second on the team with six goals and fourth in points with 14.

“He’s a special player,” Boudreau noted.

Goaltender Devan Dubnyk, who stopped 34 of 36 Pittsburgh shots, noted that Granlund and several other top Minnesota players seem to be hitting stride despite not yet reaching their 25th birthdays.

“You’ve got to take a second to realize how old they are, once in awhile,” Dubnyk said. “Then you realize they’re just going to get better.”

Contrast Granlund’s numbers this season to his career highs of 13 goals and 44 assists in 82 games during the 2015-16 season. He scored eight goals each of his previous two seasons and came into this season with 31 goals in 240 games.

But that surge people anticipated appeared to be coming: He scored four of his goals in his team’s final 13 games and added a goal and two assists in six playoff games.

“The end of the season was good for me,” Granlund said after tallying a goal and an assist against the Penguins. “I’ve started on the right foot this season, and hopefully I’ll keep doing that.”

It was balance including three power-play goals that enabled the Wild to cruise past Pittsburgh and raise their record to a very decent 11-7-2 through 20 games, including 7-3 at home.

“We have a lot of depth in this team and we can go with three or four lines,” Granlund said. “I think that’s one of our strengths.”

The post Flying Finn Paces Wild appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Second straight shutout has Minnesota searching for answers

Nashville – The Wild are in a lot of pain these days for a team that went into its 45th game with the most points in franchise history.

Minnesota suffered its fourth loss in a row Saturday, a 3-0 decision to a Nashville Predators team that had lost its previous five games.

The Wild were unable to figure out Nashville’s goaltending, a bit of a surprise because regular Preds starter Pekka Rinne had the night off. Instead, Carter Hutton stood tall in the net, finally raising his save percentage above .900 this season.

The Wild had plenty of early chances and later outshot the Preds 13-5 in the second period, yet eventually extended their stretch of scoreless periods to six.

“Two games, no goals,” muttered forward Mikael Granlund. “The fact is, you can’t win the hockey game if you don’t score.”

It seemed that Wild players were at least focusing on shooting the puck, with the possible exception of Thomas Vanek and his dazzling but perhaps overused ability to pass.

Vanek had zero shots on goal compared to a combined 15 for defensemen Marco Scandella and Ryan Suter and forward Jason Pominville. Charlie Coyle, Mikko Koivu, Justin Fontaine and Matt Dumba each registered no shots on goal.

“That’s the tendency when you’re pressing,” Wild coach Mike Yeo said. “The tendency is to try to find a prettier play or a nicer play or the sure play for a goal. We’re trying to make the extra play to guarantee the goal, and in the meantime we’re missing a lot of opportunities.”

Thanks to a goal by ex-Wild forward Eric Nystrom, who deflected a point shot by Shea Weber past Devan Dubnyk just 1:24 into the first period, the Wild were trailing early in this one.

Again.

“We had a good start, too,” Yeo said. “But that’s kind of been the story: We’re chasin’ all game, every game right now.”

The only goal they yielded in a 1-0 loss to Winnipeg 24 hours earlier was scored just 3:07 into the first period.

Two early strikes against.

“Cheesy goals, too,” Suter said.

A power-play goal in the third period gave the Predators a 2-0 cushion and they added an empty-netter, which was enough against a team with five goals now in its past five games.

“It is frustrating,” Granlund said, noting that it is time for the Wild players to take a deep breath. “We just need to get better and we need to change this track quickly.”

Yeo, whose team has a 22-15-8 overall record, admitted to the same frustrations.

“We have to use this stretch, as bad as it is, to make sure that we dig in and get a little bit stronger in our game,” he said. “If we do that, then the results will follow.”

Now the Wild must attempt to regroup in upcoming back-to-back road games against Anaheim and Los Angeles.

“It’ll come,” Suter said. “We’ve got guys that have scored a lot of goals in there.”

The post Wild shoot blanks again appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Pominville, Granlund among those due to heat up offensively

What’s strange through nine games is that the Wild are winning despite a surprising number of guys who aren’t contributing much.

Erik Haula and Jared Spurgeon have zero goals apiece, while Jason Zucker, Mikael Granlund, Justin Fontaine and Matt Dumba each have one.

Those guys are expected to score.

Then there’s Jason Pominville, who came into this season with 237 career goals in 752 games. He nailed the crossbar in the first period of Tuesday night’s 4-3 victory over the Edmonton Oilers, drawing oohs from the Xcel Energy Center crowd of 18,936.

But Pominville has no goals and five assists so far.

The good news: It hardly seems to matter.

The win, concluding three games in four nights and four games in six nights, gave the Wild a 6-2-1 record.

“We’re winning different ways,” coach Mike Yeo said. “We’re not perfect, but when you’re winning games, there’s positives for sure. It was a tough stretch here, but this is how we’ll get better.”

Mikael Granlund has just one goal through nine games this season. (MHM Photo / Jonathan Watkins)

Pominville, who scored 30 goals two years ago and 18 last season, seems to get the brunt of the attention from dissatisfied fans. He and Granlund have just one goal between them compared to seven for their linemate, Zach Parise.

But Yeo says he’s not about to panic.

“Just like everybody, they’re not 100 percent on top of their game,” Yeo said, “but I really felt like tonight was a step in the right direction.”

On this evening, Ryan Suter netted his first two goals of the season while Marco Scandella picked up his first. Then Charlie Coyle, demoted briefly from the third line to the fourth line because Yeo wasn’t liking what he was seeing, scored the game-winner off a pass from Thomas Vanek midway through the third period.

“I just tried to respond in the third there and get back to my game, make something happen,” Coyle said. “It was a good result. It’s nice to be rewarded when you do it, but I’ve got to do it consistently and not get away from it.”

Yeo was asked if he was sending Coyle a message.

Message or otherwise, Yeo noted, “he responded.”

Even without many goals from several players, the Wild raised their goal total to 28 in nine games, which ranks in the top 10 of the NHL. Vanek is second to Parise on the team with four goals and also has four assists, while Nino Niederreiter, Mikko Koivu and Coyle each have three goals.

Koivu, who has points in eight of Minnesota’s nine games, extended his points-streak to seven games and has eight points. Suter also raised his points total to eight.

Twelve players have three points or more in Minnesota’s balanced attack.

“It’s a great thing,” Scandella said. “Everyone’s playing well, and we’re finding a way to win. That’s the most important thing.”

Vanek says that when a teammate slumps, it’s up to other guys to chip in.

“That’s what makes a good team,” he said. “Things are going good for me right now; I know I hit that rough patch. We need guys like Pomer to step up, which he will.

“Again, no one has perfect seasons. There’s going to be a stretch when it doesn’t go your way, and we need other guys to pick each other up. That’s what makes a good team, and right now we’re doing that.”

Even goalie Devan Dubnyk has produced lackluster statistics so far. He stopped 22 of 25 shots against the Oilers Tuesday night and has a goals-against average is 2.27 and a save percentage of .909.

More important, however, is that he has a 6-2 record.

And through Tuesday’s play, Minnesota was tied for second in the Western Conference with 13 points, just one behind Dallas.

The post Wild winning despite missing links appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Wild kick off 2015-16 season with high expectations, work to be done

The Minnesota Wild drops the puck on season number 15 tonight in Denver against Patrick Roy’s Colorado Avalanche. The teams opened the 2014-15 season with a home-and-home “series” in which Minnesota’s then goalie-of-the-future, Darcy Kuemper, shut out the Avs (5-0, 3-0) in both games.

At the time it was quite a statement considering the Wild’s contentious seven-game series win over Colorado in the opening round of the 2014 Stanley Cup Playoffs just five months prior. Ultimately, both teams struggled last season with only the Wild, behind a historic second-half surge, managing to return to the postseason.

Fast forward to tonight and both teams have something to prove. Colorado wants to show the rest of the National Hockey League that it’s down year was a fluke while the Wild — along with current goalie-of-the-future , Devan Dubnyk — aims to demonstrate their stretch run was not.

For that to happen, several factors come into play for Minnesota and here’s a few of them in no particular order:

Centers of attention

Mikael Granlund’s development took a step in the wrong direction last season. (MHM Photo / Jeff Wegge)

Looked upon as a position of strength a year ago, Minnesota was anything but strong up the middle in 2014-15.

After posting a solid 41 points (8-33—41) in his first full season in a Wild sweater in 2013-14, Mikael Granlund further boosted expectations in the playoff with five points against Colorado, including his electrifying Game 3 overtime winner.

Granlund’s production dipped (from 0.65 points per game to 0.57), however, despite playing between Zach Parise and Jason Pominville for the majority of the season. Granted, Pominville’s struggles to find the net last year are well documented, but the Wild need more from Granlund if they are going to do more than sneak into the playoffs.

Like Granlund, Erik Haula made a splash two years ago racking up 15 points (6-9—15) in 46 games to close out the regular season, another seven (4-3—7) in 13 playoff games and was a combined plus-16. While Haula remained a stingy penalty killer in his sophomore season, the former Gopher scoring leader managed just 14 points and was a minus-7 despite playing 26 more games last year.

Needless to say, the Pori, Finland native will open the season under coach Mike Yeo’s microscope and a quick trip to Yeo’s doghouse awaits him if he can’t turn things around early on.

With third-line staple Kyle Brodziak preparing to face the Wild in Saturday night’s home opener as a member of the St. Louis Blues, rookie Tyler Graovac steps into that role between Charlie Coyle and Thomas Vanek. While he has the skill to top Brodziak’s 20 points in his final season in Minnesota, the question is whether the 6’5”, 200-pounder can match the intensity his predecessor brought night in and night out.

That leaves Mikko Koivu. Minnesota’s captain is who he is and that’s a player who will give you 40 to 50 points (when healthy), play a solid game in his own zone and win critical draws at both ends of the ice. With that said, the sooner someone like Graovac can develop and supplant Koivu in a top-six role, the more dangerous the Wild will become. But don’t look for it this season quite yet.

Charlie Coyle’s stong pre-season (1 goal, 7 assists) provides hope that he is ready to be relied upon every night. (MHM Photo / Jeff Wegge)

Promotion from within

Wild General Manager Chuck Fletcher, often fairly active in June and July, was mostly a spectator over the summer. Brodziak and Chris Stewart departed via free agency while the cap-strapped Wild’s biggest splash was outbidding the Chicago Blackhawks, among others, for free-agent defenseman — and former Gopher blueliner — Mike Reilly, who will start the season with Minnesota’s American Hockey League affiliate in Iowa.

Although Fletcher’s hands were essentially tied, the message was sent that the Wild’s young core was going to be counted on to transition their games from prospect to pro potential to give Minnesota any chance to climb the Western Conference ranks.

In addition to Granlund and Haula, players like Charlie Coyle, Jason Zucker, Nino Niederreiter, Matt Dumba and Christian Folin must take significant steps forward in their development or the Wild will remain simply playoff participants rather than true factors in pursuit of the Stanly Cup.

If the pre-season was any indication, there is reason for optimism in that regard.

Stability in the crease

Kuemper’s strong start a year ago jump started Minnesota to a 7-3-0 record through 10 games with all three losses coming by a single goal. But Kuemper’s inconsistent play, along with that of Niklas Backstrom, contributed to the Wild’s annual mid-season swoon and left the team’s confidence shattered.

Devan Dubnyk rescued Minnesota’s 2014-15 season. But the Wild’s postseason hopes shouldn’t be all on his shoulders this year. (MHM Photo / Jeff Wegge)

Enter Devan Dubnyk. Like Kuemper, Dubnyk, acquired via trade from the Arizona Coyotes on Jan. 14, pitched a shutout the following day in his season debut with the team, a 7-0 road blanking of the Buffalo Sabres. Dubnyk would go on to start a franchise-record 38 straight games, posting a 27-9-2 record with a 1.78 GAA, .936 saves percentage and five shutouts to lead Minnesota into the postseason.

The Wild can’t and shouldn’t count on numbers, much less a workload, of that nature out of Dubnyk over the course of his first full season. But with a long-term (six-years, $26 million) deal signed over the summer, he is poised to provide Minnesota with the stability and consistency at that position it has so desperately needed for a long time.

Kuemper, for his part, must adequately share some of the load to keep Dubnyk fresh over the long haul. He has the body, skill and demeanor to eventually be an NHL starting goalie but has struggled with his consistency.

Dubnyk’s contract is a clear sign Kuemper is unlikely to ever be a No. 1 in Minnesota so he is essentially in audition mode for the rest of the league. Every start he gets is an opportunity to boost his trade value and it’s in both his and the team’s best interests that he seizes it.

The best thing Backstrom can do for Minnesota is be ready if called upon and, more importantly, not become a distraction.

Will less ice time help Ryan Suter return to top form? (MHM Photo / Jeff Wegge)

Suter takes a seat

Yeo shuffled his defense pairings in the pre-season in an effort to balance them out and pave the way for a little more time off for top defenseman Ryan Suter. A fixture near the top of the league’s leaders in ice time, Suter will still see plenty of ice, particularly in crucial situations, but his workload will be reduced.

That’s what Yeo saying now anyway.

Suter will start the season paired with Jared Spurgeon on the Wild’s top unit while former partner Jonas Brodin lines up alongside his pal Dumba. Marco Scandella anchors the third pairing with second-year pro Folin. Yeo has confidence in all three units and has said he would rank his top six defensemen with anyone’s in the league.

Will that translate to resisting the urge to send Suter over the boards as often as he has in the past? That remains to be seen, but there were indications in the 31-year-old’s play last season, particularly in the first half, that Suter could benefit from a few more breathers.

The loss of his father on the eve of training camp can’t be discounted as a factor in Suter’s reduced effectiveness for much of last season but a healthy, well-rested Ryan Suter returning to dominant form will be critical to any success the Wild finds in 2015-16.

The post Let the games begin appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Winnipeg hands Minnesota fifth straight loss on Ladd OT winner

SAINT PAUL – It was that darn stanchion. Again.

For the second time since April, a stanchion played a role in an overtime Minnesota Wild losing effort, summing up a night – and possibly a season – where Murphy’s Law seems to be in place for the Wild.

Playing with an emergency goaltender, falling behind twice and losing two key players in the third period, the Wild, were able to earn a point in a 4-3 loss to Winnipeg in front of a season-high 19,177 fans. Unfortunately, Minnesota was looking for two with one of its better efforts in December.

Andrew Ladd’s shot 2:47 into overtime went off the glass stanchion behind emergency Wild goaltender John Curry, off his back and into the back of the net for the winner.

“I thought we generated a good amount of chances,” Wild coach Mike Yeo said about his team’s fifth straight loss. “Doing a lot of things, I know we limited the scoring chances against to a real solid number. For a team that needs results, it’s easy to sit here and paint a positive picture … and this was a step in the right direction, but no question do we need to win games.”

Minnesota entered a critical two game home-and-home series with Winnipeg on a four game losing streak and eight points behind the Jets, which are in the first Wild Card spot, in the Central standings. Win both in regulation and the deficit is a reasonable four. (Winnipeg has played three more games than the Wild.)

John Curry played in an emergency role for the Minnesota Wild in place of an ill Niklas Backstrom in the Wild’s 4-3 OT loss to the Winnipeg Jets December 27, 2014 at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Photo by Bruce Kluckhohn/NHLI via Getty Images)

Yeo’s team also faced the Jets with Jason Zucker and both his goaltenders – Darcy Kuemper and Niklas Backstrom – sidelined because of illness. Kuemper, who missed two games earlier in the month with another illness, served as backup instead. In his place was Curry.

The Shorewood, MN native, who has a .917 save percentage in 13 games with Iowa (AHL) and six NHL appearances since 2008,  was playing his second game in two nights; having made 38 saves backstopping  the Iowa Wild to a 2-1 win Friday over Rockford. He didn’t know whether he would start when he came to the rink Saturday afternoon. He wasn’t listed on Minnesota’s pregame line sheet.

Curry played well despite the uncertainty, stopping his first ten shots and making 19 saves in a losing effort.

“It’s a bad bounce, but I know what this team has come through. They’ve had their struggles,” he said about the way the game ended. “I thought we played well tonight. We deserved to win that game.

“I just wish I could have made one more of those saves.”

Mikael Granlund gave Minnesota a 1-0 lead with his first goal since Nov. 28. The Finnish forward began a give and go with Jason Pominville and beat Jets goaltender Michael Hutchinson to put the Wild ahead with 3:57 remaining in the first.

He wasn’t able to finish the game, however. Granlund, along with Minnesota defenseman Jonas Brodin, both left in the third period with upper body injuries that will have them out of Monday’s game, according to Yeo.

Brodin was hit entering the Winnipeg zone with 17 minutes left. Granlund was thrown into the boards later in the period by Dustin Byfuglien, setting up a Wild power play that he didn’t participate.

Bryan Little tied the game 7:17 into the second period. Zach Parise thought he had given the Wild the lead a minute after Little’s goal, but the potential go-ahead goal was waved off due to goaltender interference. Although Minnesota had several more chances in front of the net and on breakaways, it wasn’t able to convert.

Instead, Adam Lowry gave the Jets a 2-1 lead 1:52 into the third period.

Minnesota Wild F Jason Pominville ties the game at 2-2 with a third-period goal against the Winnipeg Jets during the game on December 27, 2014 at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. The Jets went on to defeat the Wild 4-3 in overtime. (Photo by Bruce Kluckhohn/NHLI via Getty Images)

Pominville tied the game nine minutes later to begin a sequence of three goals in 123 seconds with two ex-Gophers each scoring on the same power play. Blake Wheeler beat Curry on a two-on-one shorthanded break with Evander Kane to give Winnipeg a 3-2 lead. 32 seconds later Thomas Vanek tipped Jared Spurgeon’s shot past Hutchinson, who made 22 saves, to keep the score and dueling “Let’s Go Wild” and “Go Jets Go” chants even.

“I like being in the middle of the ice there and Spurge(on) made a great shot pass there. I feel like I had some good tips today. Finally one went in,” said Vanek.

The same can be said for the Jets. Games can’t end in ties in the NHL. Someone has to win – a feeling the Wild understand, having lost three overtime games in a four game homestand – yet that doesn’t make losing one with a bounce the way it did any easier.

“It is hard to take when you lose. We need results. We lost the game again, that’s the bottom line,” said Parise. “We did some things okay. We did some other things not great. We have to snap out of it. That’s a team we’re chasing and we needed to get that win.”

Now the Wild will go back to Winnipeg to where the bounces hope to even out – Yeo and no one in the locker room are making excuses – even if that’s not the way things have gone on and off the ice.

“It’s a team ahead of us. They’re playing good hockey, they’re playing a good team game and I thought for the most part we played well. We just didn’t get the two points,” Vanek said. “We’ll play them in two days and we’ll try to get two points.”

Other notes:

-Minnesota and Winnipeg complete the home-and-home series at MTS Centre Monday night at 7:00 p.m. CT.

-Parise on the goal interference call: “I was pushed into him. I don’t know what he wants me to do. I was pushed into him and he was out of the crease so… I don’t know. I can’t answer that with my real opinion.”

-Despite the injury, Granlund earned his 10th career multi-point game with an assist on Pominville’s goal. His own goal was the first of 2014-15 not against the Dallas Stars.

-Stu Bickel also picked up his first assist in a Wild sweater.

The post Wild bounce lifts Jets appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Burden of firsts simultaneously lifted from Vanek, Minnesota’s beleaguered PP

With the turn of the calendar, the Wild seemingly took the date to heart, checking off a few firsts of the season on Nov. 1.

In its 4-1 win against the Stars, three of the four goal scorers netted their first of the season. But wait, there’s more. Two of Minnesota’s four goals on the night were power play goals.

After going 0-for-28 on the power play, the Wild finally capitalized on its 29th man advantage as Thomas Vanek netted his first of the season from the doorstep of Stars netminder Kari Lehtonen. It was the proverbial monkey-off-his-back moment for Vanek who has been known for his scoring touch his entire career. His relief was visible from the press box.

“First of all, I’m not that much of a celebrator, unless it’s a really big goal,” Vanek said. “It’s just more of a relief than anything I guess. Even better that it was on the power play, as you guys know, we’ve struggled on the power play. It was nice to break my streak and break our team’s streak at the same time.”

“Even though it didn’t look like much, it felt great.”

Minnesota’s Nino Niederreiter, defended here by Jamie Oleksiak of the Dallas Stars, scored the Wild’s second power-play goal of the season and his third of the year ovrall on November 1, 2014 at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Photo by Bruce Kluckhohn/NHLI via Getty Images)

So far this season the winger has displayed his playmaking abilities time and again, leading the team with seven assists on the season. To get his first of the season gift wrapped as a power play goal provided some relief for the whole bench. In fact, the Wild didn’t waste any time tallying its second power play goal of the season, as it capitalized the following opportunity, off of Nino Niederreiter’s stick.

“We were due,” Wild coach Mike Yeo laughed.

“I had a feeling when we got one, that game, we would get more than one, the way it was going. It relieves a burden, that’s for sure.”

While Vanek’s score gave the Wild a 3-1 lead at the time, it was Mikael Granlund who got things started. He put Minnesota on the board with his first of the year as he picked off a Stars pass in the offensive zone and sent the puck high glove side.

Defenseman Matt Dumba got the trend going, firing home his first of the season to give the Wild a 2-0 lead — though it only lasted eight seconds as Vernon Fiddler scored Dallas’ lone goal. The eight-second gap between goals by both teams sets a new franchise home record previously set at 0:10 by Mark Parrish (MIN) and Jonathan Cheechoo (SJ) on Dec. 31, 2007 (15:22 & 15:32 of the third) in a 3-2 loss to the Sharks.

Dumba’s goal marks the second year in a row he tallied his first of the year against the Stars as he netted his first career goal last season against Dallas on Oct. 12.

Darcy Kuemper made 19 saves to raise his record to 6-2-0 this season with a 1.62 GAA, a .930 SV% and an NHL high three shutouts while Lehtonen made 26 saves in a losing cause.

The Wild will play its final contest of a three-game homestand against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday at 7 p.m. CT on FOX Sports North and KFAN 100.3 FM.

The post Win Brings Wild Sighs of Relief appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Wild’s young stars take center stage in 4-0 Game 3 win over the Blackhawks.

SAINT PAUL—The goal light at the west end of the Xcel Energy Center rink, the end where Minnesota shoots twice, flashed for nearly the first two minutes of Tuesday night’s clash between the Wild and Blackhawks in Game 3 of their Stanley Cup Playoff series. After two periods of tight checking, scoreless hockey, there was more than a hint of irony in the malfunction.

As it turns out, however, it was merely a prelude of what was to come at that end of the ice.

Former Gopher Erik Haula broke a scoreless tie just 1:41 into the third period, batting fellow rookie Justin Fontaine’s one-hop saucer pass out of midair behind Chicago goalie Cory Crawford, as the Wild scored four times in the final 20 minutes to beat the Blackhawks 4-0.

“When I received the puck I could see [Haula] flying on the outside and their D was taking the center of the ice away,” said Fontaine, Haula’s one-time WCHA rival at Minnesota-Duluth. “I just threw an area pass to the backdoor area and he was able to beat [the defenseman] to the puck.

“He was fast in college and he’s fast here. That’s a guy you’ve got to watch out for.”

“What I saw tonight was everybody was good in their role and he played a real important role for us like he has and he’s continued to grow,” Wild coach Mike Yeo said of Haula. “His speed to get there and to drive the net on that goal was evident.”

Haula, who saw the puck roll off his stick on a first-period breakaway attempt, had redemption on his mind as his game-winning play with Fontaine developed.

“I just kept thinking in my head [that] I hope I get another chance to bury one,” Haula said. “And [Fontaine] made a great play for me to do that.”

Embattled Wild goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov made 19 saves to earn his first postseason shutout in eight seasons to help Minnesota cut Chicago’s lead in the series in half at two games to one. Crawford finished with 14 saves.

Zach Parise had a goal and an assist while Jason Pominville assisted on two goals, but this was a night for the Wild’s younger players to shine.

Nino Niederreiter was a physical presence in Minnesota’s crucial Game 3 win. (MHM Photo / Jeff Wegge)

In addition to Haula and Fontaine—who earned his first career playoff point—Mikael Granlund scored twice, including an empty netter, with Charlie Coyle and Nino Niederreiter each adding an assist on the final tally.

“We see how important they are for our team but how much better they’re getting even in this postseason,” Parise said. “They’ve been so good for us at such great times in the games and I think they’re just going to keep getting better.”

While Coyle and Niederreiter ended up on the score sheet, that’s not where they made the greatest impact on the game. Both played outstanding physical games, winning battles along the boards, in the corners and, in Niederreiter’s case, behind the Chicago net.

“Your top skilled guys on both sides are getting very, very keyed on so that’s when you need other parts of your lineup to come through,” Yeo said. “You need other parts of your lineup to make plays.”

It’s something Granlund and his fellow twenty-somethings fully understand.

Mikael Granlund watches as his shot heads for the back of the net for the first of his two third-period goals as Chicago’s Brent Seabrook dives in a futile attempt to stop it. (MHM Photo / Jeff Wegge)

“Obviously we have a lot of young guys, we have our roles, and obviously we need to step up,’’ Granlund said. “Every player on this team needs to play at a high level.’’

Granlund’s first goal, coming just 2:37 after Haula’s, was a thing of beauty. Pominville’s cross-ice pass found the trailing Granlund in the left circle who got Crawford to bite on his forehand before shoveling a backhand shot inside the right post.

Not only did it serve to electrify the record 19,416 spectators, the goal gave Minnesota a playoff rarity: a multi-goal lead, one the Wild refused to surrender for a change.

Yeo said his young stars haven’t been daunted by the postseason challenge, primarily because it’s simply not an option.

“They play prominent roles and we need these guys to be really good,” Yeo said. “They’re learning on the fly and … this game is another opportunity to grow and so is the next one.”

The Wild have a day off on Wednesday and return the practice ice on Thursday to prepare for Friday’s Game 4 back at Xcel Energy Center. Faceoff is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. CT and can be seen nationwide on NBC Sports Network.

The post The Kids Are Alright appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.