Minneapolis — The NHL made its first regular-season foray into outdoor hockey with the inaugural Winter Classic on Jan. 1, 2008 featuring the Buffalo Sabres hosting the Pittsburgh Penguins. Minnesota hockey fans waited eight long years and and watched 15 more outdoor games for their chance see one played in the State of Hockey.

It turned out to be worth the wait as Minnesota-bred players and college stars combined for three goals and five assists to lead the Minnesota Wild to a 6-1 NHL Stadium series game win over the Chicago Blackhawks in front of 50,426 at TCF Bank Stadium.

Former Gopher Erik Haula led the way for Minnesota-tied contingent with a pair of second-period assists in addition to being awarded his seventh goal of the season when Chicago’s Patrick Kane pulled him down on a breakaway with the Blackhawks’ net empty.

“I had a chance,” Haula said. “But Torch said that will be the easiest goal I’ll ever score and I’ll take it.”

The goal came nearly three years to the day since Haula last scored on the University of Minnesota campus on Feb. 22, 2013 against Minnesota Duluth across Oak Street at Mariucci Arena. Ironically, it was an empty-net goal.

“What a feeling,” Haula said. “First to get the win and the whole team to play that well and having 50,000 people being back where you, kind of where you started.”

White Bear Lake’s Ryan Carter assisted on Matt Dumba’s first-period goal to open the scoring and his sixth goal of the season made it 5-0 early in the third. Haula’s fellow former Gophers Thomas Vanek (goal) and Mike Reilly (assist) chipped in as did Minnesota-Duluth’s Justin Fontaine who added an assist of his own on Dumba’s goal.

In a strange twist, Bloomington’s Zach Parise, tied with Charlie Coyle for the team lead in goals, was kept off the score sheet.

“It was fun seeing those guys score,” Wild defenseman Ryan Suter said. “I think Haulsy was really loving it after the game. But it’s good to see those guys have fun here back where it all started for them.”

Vanek’s second-period power play goal gave the Wild a 2-0 lead just past the seven minute mark. It was Vanek’s first goal on campus since a March 12, 2004 6-1 WCHA first-round playoff game win over St. Cloud State. The proud Gopher enjoyed an uncharacteristically animated goal celebration.

“It’s been a while but it feels good to be back,” said Vanek who has seven points (3-4–7) in his past seven games. “I usually don’t celebrate too much but today here, back on campus, big game, big crowd, it was fun.”

Reilly, who along with Jason Pominville assisted on the the goal, said it was exciting for him and his fellow alums to contribute to such an important win.

“Vanek did a great job tipping that puck for the shot by [Pominville] and Haula played really well as well,” said Reilly who now has three assists in his past two games. “It’s great to have the alumni like us to kind of carry on the tradition a little bit.”

The players soaked in what was described as an incredible atmosphere and left with lasting memories.

“Definitely a few goosebumps, for sure, walking out there,” Reilly said.

“It’s something you’ll probably never forget,” Haula added. “And then to have, to play it here is extra special for sure.”

Carter, one of two native Minnesotans along with Parise (Reilly was born in Chicago) to play in the game called the experience “awesome” and took the time to reflect on  a lifetime of memories as the day wore on.

“Being back home and the setting was kind of set; the snow flew in the first,” Carter said. “I look up in the stands, there’s a group of White Bear jerseys too.  And you hear the band playing and it brings you back to your college days a little bit.  It was kind of like a time warp through my career and into pro hockey.  And in the third there we got up, what was it, 5-0 or something like that, 6-1, and I sat back and said this is pretty cool.  This is pretty neat.”

The post Home ice advantage appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Despite losses, fans not deserting Wild

St. Paul – There were no bomb threats at the Xcel Energy Center Tuesday. Nor were any tomatoes tossed.

Wild fans are hanging in there.

Another standing-room-only crowd of 19,087 could have turned unruly after the Dallas Stars outshot Minnesota 13-9 and scored two unanswered goals to grab a 3-2 lead in the second period, but instead offered applause and even a few cheers when the home team produced a slight flurry before leaving the ice.

“Our fans were awesome,” Wild coach Mike Yeo said.

Prodded by a 12-0 difference in shots on goal at the start and the tying goal by the Wild in the third period, the fans even came together midway through the period with resounding cheers of “Let’s go, Wild!”

One goal, Mikko Koivu’s power-play tally early in the third period, was all Minnesota could manage over the 20-minute session, however, and the Stars got an overtime goal from John Klingberg to saunter out of the X with a 4-3 overtime win.

The Wild outshot the Stars 40-30 but have now lost 11 of their past 12 games.

Negatives, Yeo pointed out, are permeating the atmosphere around his team. He prefers to pick out the positives, he said.

One was the early play of the Thomas Vanek-Erik Haula-Justin Fontaine line.

Vanek, who notched two assists but whose turnover led to Klingberg’s winning goal, said one point is a whole lot better than zero, but added, “We felt like this was going to be a comeback win, but we couldn’t get it done.”

Noted Koivu: “We’ve got to play a good 60 or 65 minutes, whatever it takes, to win a hockey game in this league, and we’re not able to do that right now.”

Haula, who had a goal and an assist, noted that people keep saying how hard it is for a team to pull out of a slump, and “it really is,” he said. “It wasn’t enough again. We weren’t good enough to win the game.”

Yeo ducked no questions after the game, explaining to the media that no one has a magic cure for his team’s decline.

“It’s very easy right now to find negatives,” he added, “but nothing easy is going to get us out of this.”

Even though the Wild dominated play for much of the third period, outshooting Dallas 17-4, the strong finish served as little solace for Koivu.

“We can talk about those things over and over,” he said. “We didn’t do it and we lose the hockey game. … There’s no shortcuts. There’s not one thing we need to be doing better or whatever. We’ve got to play better to win a hockey game.”

The Wild outshot St. Louis 39-24 in a 4-1 defeat Feb. 6, so at least puck possession has improved over Minnesota’s past two games.

“I think we are playing with a little more enthusiasm, a little more jam, and that’s a good sign,” forward Zach Parise said.

Nevertheless, Parise added, things are tough in the Minnesota dressing room.

“Not a lot of people,” he said, “are feeling good offensively.”

If it’s tough in the room, it’s sometimes even tougher outside the room, where at least one bombshell exploded in the world of social media Tuesday night.

Zenon Konopka, who runs a winery and played 73 games at forward for Minnesota in 2012-14 before Buffalo acquired him on waivers, weighed in via Twitter after the nationally televised game.

“The Minnesota Wild have so much talent,” Konopka tweeted. “All the pieces to be Stanley Cup champs – wasting years isn’t fair to the players or fans.”

He concluded his tweet with: #YeohastoGo.

Some fans on social media undoubtedly agree, but the crowds continue coming to the X. Tuesday’s game was the 26th home sellout out of 26 games this season; the Wild are averaging more than 19,000 per home game.

And none of them – at least Tuesday night – was heard booing.

The post Keeping the faith appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Frustration mounts as scoring continues to be elusive

St. Paul – Thomas Vanek offered up this thought to try and find answers for a sputtering offense, after the Wild finished a three-game homestand with its first shutout loss of the season, 1-0 to the Winnipeg Jets (21-21-3) Friday night.

“Sometimes simple is more, especially when we have a few guys who are struggling,” Vanek said, who included himself in that category. “Just get pucks to the net.”

It’s clear the Wild (22-14-3) is a team, with its third consecutive loss, that is struggling to put pucks in the net lately. They’ve scored a total of five goals in the past four games.

“It’s frustrating we’re not scoring,” Zach Parise said. “Offensively, it’s just been not too exciting or not too much fun for us.”

It was the first time the Wild has been shutout this season, leaving Detroit as the only team in the NHL to register at least a goal in every game so far. The Wild’s last shutout came last April, also at the hands of the Jets, in a 2-0 loss in St. Paul.

Friday, former Golden Gopher Blake Wheeler scored the lone tally, just three minutes into the game. He drove the slot and beat Devan Dubnyk on the glove side. That was all that filled the score sheet.

The early deficit aside, the Wild didn’t fold right away, registering 13 shots on goal in the first 20 minutes. But that number dropped to four for the second period and seven shots in the third. They had one last chance to tie it late when Mikko Koivu was hauled down with less than three minutes to play in regulation, for a Wild power play in which it also pulled Dubynk.

It was a game where it felt like it they got one goal, they’d get another, Vanek said.

“And we weren’t able to get one,” he said.

The Wild also fell to 1-3-0 against the divisional and geographical rival Jets this season.

“It was hanging right there for us,” coach Mike Yeo said. “Just couldn’t grab ahold of it.”

For one thing, giving up the first goal of the game to the opponent is becoming a common trend, Yeo said, which puts his team in “press mode.”

The Wild is 2-4-2 so far this month and has scored just 15 goals during that time. The power play hasn’t cashed in either, with a glaring 0-for-17 stat this month. Not scoring goals with the extra man affects guys, Yeo said.

“It affects confidence, it affects pressure,” he said.

“We have to find a way to create something here. We have to make some adjustments.”

His team has been here before, he added. They’re in a decent place, and “it’s not the end of the world now,” he said. But they need to find their game, their confidence and some goals, pronto. They’re playing playoff hockey, he said.

“I like to think that what we’ve been through in the past will help us get through what’s in front of us,” Yeo said.

With that in mind, the Wild hits the road for a four-game trip, starting Saturday night in Nashville.

“It’s frustrating, but we have to put this one behind us and get ready for tomorrow,” Vanek said.

Other notes:

Jason Pominville played in his 208^th consecutive game with the Wild Friday, going back to Oct. 13, 2013. That’s good for third place for most consecutive games played in franchise history, surpassing Andrew Brunette (207).

Ryan Suter tallied six of the Wild’s 24 shots on goal, which ties his second-most in a single game this season. He was on the ice a game-high 27:46.

The post Shutout continues skid appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Third straight loss hints at dawn of annual mid-season swoon

The Wild suddenly appear in imminent danger of pulling a Tom Petty by freefalling through the NHL’s Central Division.

Again.

Swoons in December and January have become almost commonplace under coach Mike Yeo over the past few seasons.

Thomas Vanek, who had a goal and an assist Saturday, wasn’t ready to liken this year’s team to the last.

“We’re not in December, yet,” he pointed out.

Unfortunately, however, it seems the Wild are kicking off their struggles a little early. They blew a 3-0 third-period Saturday night and bowed 4-3 in overtime to the Dallas Stars, losing their third consecutive game at the Xcel Energy Center and dropping their record to one win in their past seven games.

Yeo, who appeared livid during a timeout after the Stars tied the score with 5:26 left in the third period, is fully aware of previous mid-season skids by his boys.

“Same story,” coach he said. “Here we are again.”

It’s a story with bite because the Wild had a lot going for them in front of 19,024 home customers Saturday night: Justin Fontaine returned from a knee injury and chipped in an assist along with some strong play; Darcy Kuemper played in goal for the first time since Oct. 16 and made 40 saves; and Jason Pominville ended his nightmare of a slump with his first goal in his 22nd game of the season to give Minnesota a 3-0 lead.

That goal came after Pominville left the penalty box and drove a shot past the Stars’ Antti Niemi just 1:11 into the second period.

“Boy, what a great 21 minutes and (11) seconds we played,” Yeo said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “That’s great. Too bad the game didn’t end there.”

Minnesota outshot the Stars 9-7 in the first period and controlled much of the play, grabbing a 2-0 lead on goals by Vanek and Charlie Coyle. But Dallas outshot the Wild 19-8 in the second period and 16-7 in the third.

They grabbed a turnover to score short-handed to cut the deficit to a goal midway through the third period and the Wild were unable to recover.

That, Vanek said, was a stake to the heart.

Maybe, Yeo noted, but not unexpected.

“It was coming,” he said. “It was coming right from the second period.”

Minnesota’s dressing room emptied in a hurry after this one.

Asked about the atmosphere, Vanek looked around.

“Pretty quiet,” he responded. “There’s not much you can say. The guys know that’s not good enough. Not acceptable.”

Defenseman Ryan Suter, who played 32 minutes, 19 seconds, said a 3-0 lead prompts nearly every hockey team to “sit back” a bit.

“We have to learn from it,” he added. “Obviously it’s disappointing.”

The Wild travel to Chicago for a Tuesday game, then return to the X for games against Toronto and Colorado.

“We’ll see what we’re made of,” Suter said. “See what kind of character we have in here. … We’ve just got to pick it up and see what we have.”

The result left Dallas with a 19-5-0 record while Minnesota limped away with an 11-7-4 mark and a vivid memory of what a winning hockey team looks like.

“They stayed with it,” Yeo said. “Credit to them – great job. That’s why they’re in first place; that’s why we’re not. The teams at the end of the year are not the most talented teams; they’re the teams that play their game and buy in and do things the right way night after night, regardless.”

As happened last year and the year before, Yeo’s guys are reaching a crossroad.

“We’re either going to decide if we’re going to be a good team or a decent team,” Yeo said. “And I think we’re all a little bit tired of being a decent team.”

The post Losing Wild facing some tough questions appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Dubnyk’s 23 saves blank Preds on Suter’s three-point night

Things appeared a bit grim for the Wild as they came limping home from Boston last week, losers in their previous three games, missing a few key guys and seemingly unable to take the lead in a hockey game.

Trying to make hay in the super-tough Central Division is never easy, but even less so with Zach Parise, Marco Scandella and Justin Fontaine injured and several other players including Jared Spurgeon and Jonas Brodin fighting off illness.

Maybe equally important, Minnesota had formed the very bad habit of falling behind.

In their past eight road games, they led for a total of 1 minute, 12 seconds.

Consequently, everyone involved with the team came to the Xcel Energy Center Saturday fully aware of all of the above … and collectively vowing to change things.

Then they went out and played a nearly flawless game against the Nashville Predators, removing any doubts early and hammering the Preds 4-0 in front of 19,056.

“We really needed that,” center Mikael Granlund said.

“We were just on,” defenseman Ryan Suter said. “It’s been awhile.”

This time, the Wild took the lead 13:07 into the first period on a point shot by Suter with winger Thomas Vanek screening Nashville goalie Pekka Rinne.

“As soon as that went in, there was a lot of relief for our team,” Suter said. “We’d been chasing, and I think that was what was taking away from our structure and the way that we were used to playing.”

Coach Mike Yeo said that yielding the first goal over and over on the road had “weakened our game.”

Different story Saturday.

“Coming off the road, the trip that we had, I think we talked about playing good hockey right off the bat,” said Vanek, an offensive force all evening who finished with a goal and an assist and now has 16 points. “I think it was probably one of our most complete games.”

This was a group effort, from Devan Dubnyk, who made 23 saves to record his third shutout and 11th win of the season, to Brodin, who scored his first goal of the season, to captain Mikko Koivu, who got an assist for 18 points this season and played with reckless abandon throughout the 700th game of his NHL career.

Suter, whose goal was the first of his career against the team he played for prior to Minnesota, added two assists Saturday and assumed the Wild’s lead in points this season with 19 in 19 games.

After coasting with less than six minutes of ice time in the ho-hum third period and finishing with 26:24 for the game, he was able to relish an evening when the Wild simply refused to let the Predators in the game.

“We hadn’t been playing well at all on the road,” he said. “We knew we had to come home and get this thing turned around quick. I thought we did that; I thought we finally played 60 minutes.”

Even Jason Pominville, who still has zero goals this season, produced two assists to boost his points total to 10 and Granlund netted his third goal of the season while adding an assist.

As well, the Wild showed some toughness. Christian Folin fought Eric Nystrom and Nate Prosser squared off with bad-boy James Neal of the Preds, whose check sent Parise to the injury list on Nov. 5.

“To see guys dropping the gloves out there, you never expect them to,” Dubnyk said, “but it shows how we feel about what he (Neal) did to our best player. It’s important just for the symbolic part of it. Guys are going to go out and play for each other.”

Also important, with three days prior to their next game, is the Wild may soon get Parise back in the lineup, while Fontaine and Scandella are not far behind. Too, other guys will have a chance to shake off lingering illnesses.

Injuries and illnesses hurt, Vanek noted, but he stressed that the Wild “are a deep team.”

Deep and with a brighter outlook after Saturday night.

But they worked for it.

“We said this morning, we knew that coming back home would energize us,” Yeo said. “But what I like is we also said that we can’t just assume that coming back home is going to solve everything. We saw a lot more purpose in a lot of the little things that had been ailing us.”

The post Wild victory is just what doctor ordered appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Sniper delivers twice in four-goal second period

ST. PAUL – The Thomas Vanek everyone hoped would sign with the Wild two summers ago and the one who played for Minnesota last season seemed to be different people.

Goals at first came slow and infrequently.

Praise, too.

He required 11 games before recording his first goal, but the former high-scoring Gophers winger hung in there and picked up 21 goals. Trouble was, he simply couldn’t skate because of groin problems and a sports hernia.

Now he’s healthy, and the 218-pounder whose father played pro hockey in Graz, Austria, has fully arrived.

“He’s a huge weapon for us no matter where he’s playing,” Wild coach Mike Yeo said.

A player who twice scored 40 goals for the Buffalo Sabres, Vanek potted his fifth and sixth of the season Tuesday night to propel the Wild to a 5-3 victory over the Winnipeg Jets in front of 19,153 at the Xcel Energy Center.

His goals – his first on the kind of breakaway slap shot Brian Rolston became known for and his second five minutes later on a toe-drag move that turned defender Paul Postma inside out – were both highlight reel efforts.

Minnesota was missing injured Zach Parise and Justin Fontaine up front plus defender Marco Scandella, who was out for personal reasons, but the Wild took this game over with four unanswered goals in the second period to climb in front 5-1.

It began with Vanek corralling a breakaway pass from Christian Folin and blasting a shot past Jets goaltender Ondrej Pavelec at the 4:30 mark of the period, Vanek scalding the net with a rocket from between the circles to break a 1-1 tie.

“It’s a shot I feel I can hit pretty good,” Vanek explained. “Again, coming in from somewhat on the right, the middle, I feel I’m pretty good at hitting that spot, so I went for it.”

In practice, Folin said with a smile, “He does that every day.”

The Wild went short-handed a minute later, but Erik Haula immediately got loose for a breakaway and beat Pavelec to make it 3-1. It went to 4-1 when Vanek broke in and made the kind of move fans expected before he signed two summers ago as a free agent, dipping his shoulder and darting past Postma before burying his sixth goal of the season. He brought the puck along by slipping it from behind through his own legs before picking it up and tallying.

“I saw it was kind of a one-on-one opportunity,” he said. “I had pretty good speed through the neutral zone, so I just tried something and it obviously worked out well.”

Things are obviously working out well for the Wild, who completed a three-game homestand with a 2-1 record to raise their overall record to 9-3-2 despite missing a few key players.

“Obviously it’s going to hurt having Zach out,” Vanek said, “but at the same time, we’re good. I think we’re deep.”

Part of the scoring depth comes via Vanek’s production, especially because Jason Pominville has zero goals so far and Mikael Granlund just one. Yeo moved Vanek from a line with Haula and Jordan Schroeder to the line with Pominville and Granlund to begin the second period and the new combination clicked.

“I felt we needed to make a switch; I felt that Thomas was giving us the opportunity (to win),” Yeo said.

Vanek, still as modest as he was 13 seasons ago as a Gophers freshman, had a different take on it, noting that goalie Devan Dubnyk supplied the big saves in the first period and after that the Wild skaters got their legs under them.

No one did that better than Vanek, however, who with two good legs is demonstrating he still knows how to drive the net and score goals the way he did in Buffalo.

He’s having fun, too, he said.

“I feel good about my game,” he said. “This whole game, sometimes I think we take it too serious. We’ve got to have fun. Obviously you’ve got to work hard with it, but overall I think when guys like coming to the rink like this team, good things can happen.”

The post Vanek, Wild outmaneuver Jets 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.

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.

Charlie Coyle is Exhibit A in how the winning Wild can improve

Two games into the season and Devan Dubnyk appears to be the same rise-to-the-occasion goaltender he was a year ago for the Wild.

As expected.

Zach Parise, too, has so far been sensational.

As expected.

After totaling 100 points last season behind the play of Dubnyk, Parise, Nino Niederreiter, Jason Zucker, Ryan Suter, Jared Spurgeon and some others, Wild GM Chuck Fletcher and coach Mike Yeo stressed obtaining improvement from within.

The list of guys expected to step up is a long one.

So far, Charlie Coyle appears to be the prime example of doing exactly that.

Coyle scored two goals Saturday night, the first a marvelous solo effort in the first period and the second a simple carom off his body on a pass from Thomas Vanek, as Minnesota opened the home portion of its season with a 3-2 victory over the St. Louis Blues in front of 19,096 at Xcel Energy Center.

Wild F Charlie Coyle watches his first goal of the night elude St. Louis goaltender Jake Allen’s glove in the first period of Minnesota’s 3-2 win over the Blues on Saturday night at Xcel Energy Center. (MHM Photo / Jeff Wegge)

The scintillating first goal gave the Wild a 1-0 lead, and Coyle did all the work by chipping the puck up the boards to himself, shaking off two defenders and lifting home a backhander with just eight seconds remaining in the first period.

It drew oohs from the standing-room crowd, but came as no surprise to Dubnyk.

“I said that before the season started: I think he’s going to be a guy that as the season goes on, I don’t think he’s going to surprise anybody. And anybody who doesn’t know who he is is going to start to know.

“I told him, ‘That was Marshawn Lynch on the ice there,’ he was just throwing guys off of him and getting to the end zone. It was pretty awesome to watch.”

The 6-foot-3 Coyle, whose rights came to Minnesota as part of a trade that sent Brent Burns to San Jose, is just 23 but is showing more and more that he has the ability to use his size as a weapon.

Coyle had three shots, three hits, one takeaway and two goals against the rugged Blues in 16 minutes, 55 seconds on the ice.

“He played the type of game that we needed him to play against that team,” Wild coach Mike Yeo said.

Another on the list expected to hike his production is Vanek.

So far, so good.

Vanek scored in the opening win at Colorado, then ripped the puck into the crease from deep in the corner for what was announced as his 300th NHL goal.

No. 300 will have to wait – after careful video analysis, the goal was awarded to Coyle.

“That’s OK,” Vanek said. “It’s a goal, so that’s what matters.”

Vanek has a goal and an assist in two games, while Coyle has two goals and an assist.

Success stems from keeping his feet moving, according to Coyle.

“That kind of creates my energy,” he said, “and our team’s really doing things well, too. Just moving the feet, moving the puck, and getting body position around the net. That’s what I tried to do tonight.”

Inject four goals from the extraordinary Parise plus solid goaltending from Dubnyk and the Wild have started the season 2-0.

“I’m comfortable where I’m at,” said Dubnyk, who finished the evening with 30 saves. “I’m trying to build. It’s early in the season, so there’s good things and bad things. You sharpen up as you go.”

Going 2-0 is perfect, but 80 games remain.

“It’s good to get wins this time of year,” Yeo said. “Nobody’s on top of their game, but when you get wins when you’re not on top of your game, that’s a good thing.”

Other guys expected to step up along with Coyle and Vanek – guys such as Mikko Koivu, Jason Pominville, Mikael Granlund, Jonas Brodin, Matt Dumba and more – can take heart from the fact that they and their teammates have four days to work on things prior to Game 3 Thursday at Arizona.

“Our only mindset,” Yeo said, “is we have to get better.”

The post Building from within appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Path of least resistance proves elusive to Minnesota yet again

Anyone who has followed the Minnesota Wild for any period of time knows there to be one common theme throughout its brief history. Players may change, coaching staffs may change, ownership may change and heck, even the scoreboard may change, but this franchise never makes it easy on itself.

With an opportunity to put a stranglehold on its Stanley Cup Playoff first-round series with St. Louis on Wednesday night, Minnesota was outplayed in every facet of the game in a miserable 6-1 Game 4 loss to the Blues.

Instead of 3-1 lead and a chance to close out the series in St. Louis on Friday, the Wild hits the road with the potential to face elimination upon their return to Xcel Energy Center on Sunday.

“It’s obviously frustrating not to be up 3-1; we had that opportunity tonight,” Minnesota coach Mike Yeo said. “But it’s a pretty darn good team we’re playing there, and now it’s best-of-3.”

Minnesota forward Zach Parise said the only thing the Wild can do is throw out this result and put it behind them.

“We went from feeling awesome about ourselves, feeling like we can’t be beat after last game, and then we get a little dose of reality tonight,” Parise said. “We have to be a lot better, we know that.”

Minnesota was coming off a dominant performance in Monday’s 3-0 Game 3 win and Parise admitted the Wild might have come into the game “a little cocky.”

“We felt really good, and rightfully so, we felt good about the way we played the last game,” Parise said. “I don’t know if we thought it was going to be an easy game or we thought they were going to pack it in but that wasn’t the case at all.”

Wild captain Mikko Koivu saw things a bit differently when asked if Minnesota felt a little too good about itself after taking the series lead.

“I didn’t feel that. I think we knew the situation going into the game and I thought we prepared the right way but, like I said, we weren’t good enough.”

Though the talent disparity in the current matchup is not what it was when Minnesota faced Colorado in a 2008 opening-round series, the scenario has its similarities.

The Wild dropped Game 1 to the Avalanche in Denver before overtime winners by Keith Carney and Pierre-Marc Bouchard in the next two games gave Minnesota its only other 2-1 playoff series lead prior to 2015. With a chance to take a commanding 3-1 lead, the Wild was blown out by the Avalanche 5-1 and lost the series in six games.

The tone was set in its first foray into the postseason in 2003 when the upstart Wild stole road victories in both Colorado and Vancouver in the first two rounds to come home with the series tied 1-1. In each instance, of course, Minnesota was swept in Games 3 and 4 before storming back for remarkable seven-game series wins.

Even a year ago, the Wild dug themselves 2-0 holes in each round before climbing out to defeat the Avs in seven and falling in six to the Blackhawks.

It’s as if this franchise needs — and has always needed to some degree — to have its back against the wall to bring out its best with the current team serving as Exhibit A.

After 42 regular season games, Minnesota had an 18-19-5 record for 41 points, ranking 12th in the Western Conference and tied for 23rd in the NHL. The playoffs were but a pipe dream at that point.

But on Jan. 15, the Wild embarked on a jaw-dropping 28-9-3 run beginning, not coincidentally, with the acquisition of goaltender Devan Dubnyk to not only storm back into playoff contention but secure the top wild card spot ahead of Winnipeg.

With that in mind, Minnesota forward Thomas Vanek expressed confidence in his team’s ability to bounce back on Friday.

“We’ve been rebounding for three months,” Vanek said. “Again, for us it’s like I always say, ‘With a win you enjoy it and you put it behind you that night, and the loss you put it away even quicker.’”

The post Wild can’t help but do it the hard way appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.