Games Twenty-Five and Twenty-Six

Game Twenty-Five: Wild 1, Canucks 2

On Friday night, clinging to a one-point lead in the Northwest Division, the Minnesota Wild faced off against the team sitting just behind them in the standings. Vancouver had played the night before in Detroit, but the Wild were the team that couldn't get things moving in the first, putting a season-low three shots on net. Early in the second period, Mikko Koivu tied the score at 1, but Vancouver was able to get a second goal, and that was all they needed. Meanwhile, the Wild once again made a rookie goaltender look like a long-time All-Star, as they just couldn't get the puck into the net. Of course, with only 17 shots total in the game, they didn't have a lot of opportunity. The Wild had to look ahead to Nashville, hoping that the site of a 6-2 win would help revive things.

Game pluses:
- Mikko Koivu. The Wild star scored 27 seconds into the second period, extending his points streak.
- Niklas Backstrom. True, the Jaffray goal was misplayed, but Backstrom once again held the offensively challenged team in the game.
- Intensity. When you aren't scoring, you pick up other aspects of your game. The Wild played a rough, physical game, but still couldn't get things moving.

Game minuses:
- Owen Nolan. His injury definitely hampers an already rattled Wild team.
- Fights. Intensity is a good thing. All the scuffles that happened derailed any chance for momentum.
- Officiating. Both teams should have spent more time in the box. The officials kept letting things go.

Game Twenty Six: Wild 0, Predators 1
The site of the Wild's scrappy win brought a very different game. Like the Vancouver game, the Wild chased all night long in the shot category. Thankfully for the team, Josh Harding was incredibly solid all night long, keeping the Predators shots from sneaking past him for much of the game. Unfortunately for Minnesota, when a JP Dumont goal midway through the third period put Nashville up, there wasn't a clear chance to get the puck into the net. The Dumont goal came just after the Wild had killed off a late penalty, and, in a game filled with stoppages thanks to icings and offsides calls, there wasn't any coherent flow, and it wouldn't have been shocking to see the game enter overtime still tied at zero. Unlike last week in Nashville, neither team seemed all that willing to drop the gloves, with the only exceptions being Derek Boogaard and Wade Belak. Later in the game, the shots came harder, faster, and more frequent, but both goalies stood up to the challenge presented by the other team, with the help of a few posts.

Game pluses:
- Josh Harding. The Wild netminder was spectacular. Dumont's goal would have been hard for most goaltenders to stop, but Harding kept the Wild in by making stellar saves all night long.
- Penalty kill. The Wild didn't allow any power play goals this time around, and seemed to have figured out their penalty kill, at least against Nashville.
- Late pressure. The Wild almost got the equalizer twice, but Nashville's Pekka Rinne was assisted first by a post, and later by his 6'5" frame.

Game minuses:
- Power play. The Wild defeated Nashville a week before with the assistance of 5 power play goals. On Saturday, the power play looked disjointed, and the team could barely muster a shot.
- First period. One game after putting only 3 pucks on net in the first twenty minutes, the Wild almost matched futility by shooting 4 pucks at Rinne.
- Antti Miettinen. The Wild winger was able to dance and move with the puck. However, he should have been trying to pull the trigger a little more frequently.

Next up: The Wild have a long break before heading west, playing Thursday night against the 12-13-2 Phoenix Coyotes, who host the Dallas Stars the night before.