Game Sixteen: Wild 2, Penguins 1 (SO)

Sure, it would be nice if the Minnesota Wild found the offense that they seemed to leave behind after the early rush to start the season, but it's hard to argue with the results from last night, as the Wild defense shut down the high-flying Pittsburgh Penguins, only allowing one goal. Technically, Pittsburgh scored twice, but one of those two goals went past Dany Sabourin, and gave the tally to the Wild.

That flukey goal, officially credited to Mikko Koivu, gave the Wild an early lead, but it didn't last, as Matt Cooke was able to bang home a rebound a mere ten seconds later. While it seemed that the game may have tilted in favor of the Pens, and their offense, it was the Wild defense that stood strong, after having looked out-of-sorts for the first ten minutes. The Wild was able to frustrate both Sydney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, with the latter showing his frustration more visibly than the former.

One of the best chances in the game came off of the stick of Eric Belanger, who zipped a shot over Sabourin's shoulder. Unfortunately for Belanger, he happened to hit the post, and it trickled away from the goal mouth. A diving Owen Nolan just missed the puck, and the score stayed knotted. In the overtime, thanks to a Brent Burns penalty, the Penguins had good chances, but an amazing penalty kill thanks to Koivu, Belanger, and Niklas Backstrom helped the Wild skate to the shootout. There, Marek Zidlicky scored the only goal that Backstrom needed, as he stopped all three Pittsburgh shooters.

Game pluses:
- Defense. Anytime you can stop Crosby and Malkin, you've had a good defensive game. Even better, both players entered the game riding hot streaks.
- Niklas Backstrom. Once again, the netminder won the game for the Wild. Is it too early to start talking Vezina?
- Marek Zidlicky. The shootout goal was a nice capper to a strong defensive game.

Game minuses:
- James Sheppard. Again, Sheppard seemed to give the puck away at the wrong times and to the wrong players. Maybe there's too much pressure on him by playing him with other young skaters, like Colton Gillies and Cal Clutterbuck.
- Shooting. The Wild not only need to take more shots, but they need to take better shots. Two many shots were blocked by the Pens in the game.
- Matt Cooke. Cooke may have gone East, but he continues to antagonize Minnesota. His goal was a direct result of nobody trying to push him aside. By the same token, being in Pittsburgh seems to have allowed Cooke to remember that he's a hockey player.

Next up: The Wild tries to get revenge on the 10-6-2 Vancouver Canucks, who beat Minnesota 2-0 last time the teams played. Meanwhile, Vancouver will be trying to steal first place in the division back. The Canucks play the New York Rangers tonight.