Game Forty-seven: Wild 6, Maple Leafs 1

When the Minnesota Wild move the puck with precision passing, they can play against any team in the league. When their opponent is slumping fast, as the Toronto Maple Leafs have been, it can easily lead to a blowout. That's exactly what happened as the Wild took advantage of an inexperienced goaltender and some shoddy Leaf defense en route to a 6-1 throttling.

The scoring was started in the first period as Cal Clutterbuck wristed a shot once again high into the corner of the net, scoring his eighth goal of the season. The Leafs were able to tie the game early in the second, but, four minutes after knotting the score at 1-1, the Wild were suddenly up by a score of 4-1. Another goal in the second period gave Minnesota a four-goal cushion, and they scored another in the third. The Wild was able to utilize touch passing and some great skating against the Leafs, and more often than not, it looked like Toronto was stuck in ruts on the ice. Constantly out of position, the Leafs left young Justin Pogge hang out to dry, while Niklas Backstrom was once again stellar, including a great triple stop on Nik Antropov.

Game pluses:
- Pierre-Marc Bouchard. A miscue by Bouchard led to the Antropov chance, and, after a benching, he got his revenge with two pretty goals and an assist.
- Eric Belanger. Belanger set up the go-ahead goal with a great play on the forecheck, and was strong defensively.
- Cal Clutterbuck. He started the scoring and was an assist away from completing the Gordie Howe hat trick. Plus, Clutterbuck once again led with his body, and, for now, leads the NHL in hits.

Game minuses:
- Power play. When you're skating against the worst penalty killing team in the NHL, there's no excuse to spend two power plays without even a shot.
- Shots. Tied into the power play statistic is the fact that the Wild was outshot all game long. They made the most of the shots they did take, but they spent too much time looking for the pass, instead of shooting it and looking for a rebound or a tip-in. Pretty plays make highlight reels. Garbage goals lead to the playoffs.
- Marek Zidlicky. The one Maple Leaf goal came off of a few defensive miscues, but the worst was Marek Zidlicky, who took neither the player nor the puck out of the picture.

Next up: The Wild head to Canada, where they will first visit a team with an identical record, the 24-20-3 Edmonton Oilers. It's only the second meeting of the season for the two teams, with 5 games remaining, and the bad blood has already been stirred.