Wild vs. Coyotes (Game #54) 2-3-07 @ 8:00PM CST at Jobing.com Arena

[LemaireisGOD]

MINNESOTA WILD (28-21-4) 60pts 3rd Northwest

150 Goals For (ranked 21st in the NHL)
137 Goals Against (ranked 8th in the NHL)

21st ranked PP (16.5%)
6th ranked PK (85%)

Top 5 Scorers:
1. #12 Brian Rolston ~ 25G 21A = 46pts
2. #96 Pierre-Marc Bouchard ~ 14G 28A = 42pts
3. #38 Pavol Demitra ~ 13G 22A = 35pts
4. #9 Mikko Koivu ~ 13G 22A = 35pts
5. #28 Todd White ~ 8G 21A = 29pts

Top PIM's:
1. #24 Derek Boogaard ~ 81 PIM's
2. #5 Kim Johnsson ~ 46 PIM's
3. #9 Mikko Koivu ~ 44 PIM's

Top Goaltender(s):
1. #35 Manny Fernandez (22-16-1) 2.57GAA .911%SP
2. #32 Niklas Backstrom (6-5-3) 2.09GAA .927%SP




VS.





PHOENIX COYOTES (24-26-2) 50pts 4th Pacific

144 Goals For (ranked 22nd in the NHL)
179 Goals Against (ranked 26th in the NHL)

27th ranked PP (15.1%)
27th ranked PK (78.9%)

Top 5 Scorers:
1. #17 Ladislav Nagy ~ 8G 30A = 38pts
2. #19 Shane Doan ~ 17G 15A = 32pts
3. #94 Yanic Perreault ~ 18G 13A = 31pts
4. #11 Owen Nolan ~ 12G 18A = 30pts
5. #55 Ed Jovanovski ~ 11G 17A = 28pts

Top PIM's:
1. #24 Josh Gratton ~ 98 PIM's
2. #53 Derek Morris ~ 81 PIM's
3. #44 Nick Boynton ~ 78 PIM's

Top Goaltender(s):
1. #31 Curtis Joseph (13-17-0) 3.12GAA .894%SP
2. #32 Mikael Tellqvist (9-6-2) 3.11GAA .897%SP
3. #30 David LeNeveu (2-1-0) 3.86GAA .894%SP
4. #1 Michael Morrison (0-3-0) 6.14GAA .790%SP

This is a huge game for the Wild; the 3rd game of a 5-game road trip. The Coyotes are a team that has been playing terrific hockey lately but are a ways behind the Wild in the standings. The Wild need to find away to come away from Jobing.com arena with 2 points to maintain pressure on the teams ahead of them in the Northwest Division standings (Calgary and Vancouver respectively) as well as maintain a distance from those behind them (Colorado and Edmonton respectively). GO WILD!!!

[LemaireisGOD]

The State of Hockey News | MVN - Most Valuable Network » Blog Archive » Backstrom, Wild hold off furious 3rd period assault to earn 1-0 road victory over Phoenix

Backstrom, Wild hold off furious 3rd period assault to earn 1-0 road victory over Phoenix

By Derek Felska | February 4th, 2007

When the Wild shocked much of the NHL and the fans within the State of Hockey with their free agent signings; names like Kim Johnsson, Mark Parrish, and the trade that brought over Pavol Demitra were considered to be significant upgrades to the roster. Perhaps their most unheralded free agent signing was that of 28-year old Finnish goaltender Niklas Backstrom. A star of Finland’s Sm-Liiga; for the last few seasons he’s put up gawdy win totals, amazingly high save percentage, and a goals against average that even the best goaltenders in the world would love to have. While the win totals this season are not exactly gawdy; which is what you’d expect from the guy who is playing the role as the backup goaltender to Manny Fernandez, the rest of his numbers have made the trip with him. Backstrom got his chance to show what he could do early in the season when he earned a victory in relief of Manny Fernandez in a crazy 6-5 win over Nashville. While for the most part Backstrom has only had a token amount of starts; he’s consistantly played very well and given the Wild the chance to win games; last night at Jobing.com Arena in Glendale, Arizona was no different.

The Wild started the game with lots of energy and quickly established a dominating forecheck that kept most of the play in the Coyotes end. At times the forecheck was so good, the Wild almost appeared as if it was on the power play. Phoenix struggled mightily to get it out of their own end as their defenseman found themselves getting hit hard into the boards by a Wild forechecker and their weak passes would be picked off by patrolling Wild player and kept in the offensive zone. Phoenix’s Curtis Joseph had to make some big saves early to keep his team in the game as it was clear the Wild had brought their ‘A’ game. One prime scoring chance came when Mikko Koivu moved into the Coyotes’ zone and he went down towards the goal-line before making a terrific backhand pass to a waiting Mark Parrish who fired the puck right into Joseph but the charging Phoenix defenseman almost pushed the puck back into the net but Joseph was able to keep it out to keep the game tied at 0-0. On the other end Niklas Backstrom did not have to deal with much offensive pressure as the Wild’s defense was able to keep most of Phoenix’s chances to the perimeter. One Phoenix scoring chance of note came when Backstrom would make the initial save and the puck would pop up into the air and amidst all of the sticks swatting at the puck the Coyotes’ Patrick Fischer would kick the puck into the Wild net for what was initially called a goal. After a fairly brief review, the goal was correctly waived off and the game would remain scoreless going into the 2nd.

In the 2nd period the Wild would get on the scoreboard early when just 12 seconds in Pavol Demitra would flip a pass that Marian Gaborik would tap down to the ice to get control of and then move in a rip a wrist shot 5-hole by Joseph to give Minnesota a 1-0 lead. It cannot be understated how much of an impact the return of Marian Gaborik has been to the team; especially on the road where it has won 7 of its last 8 games as he has tallied 10 of his 14 goals on the season away from the friendly confines of Xcel Energy Centre. After Gaborik’s early goal, the Wild resumed their suffocating forecheck. The line of Stephane Veilleux, Pascal Dupuis, and Wyatt Smith (with honorable mention to Branko Radivojevic who was also superb on the forecheck) were outstanding all night long as they did a tremendous job at keeping Phoenix bottled up in its own zone much of the night. Yet an aggressive forecheck sometimes gives the opposition some prime scoring chances of their own; a nice flip pass by former Golden Gopher Keith Ballard would go onto the stick of Yanic Perreault who made Minnesota’s Martin Skoula look silly as he walked past him for a breakaway and he wound up and ripped a slapper that Backstrom managed to glove for the big save. The Wild’s power play, while it was kept scoreless was generating some good offensive chances and moving the puck well but Curtis Joseph was coming up with excellent saves of his own to keep his team trailing just by 1 going into the 3rd.

In the 3rd the game would change into one of desperation for the Coyotes; playing in front of a fairly packed crowd of 17,115. The Wild would carry the play again for about the first 5 minutes and then play a nerve-wracking style of rope-a-dope for the rest. One clearly missed call was when former Gopher star Keith Ballard checked Wyatt Smith from behind sending him crashing into the boards face first with no call; it was a textbook example of boarding yet Wild Officiating nemesis Mick McGeough kept his arm down. In the last 10 minutes the entire game almost seemed to be played in the Wild’s zone and Niklas Backstrom came up big time after time. One prime example was when Yanic Perreault was all alone right in the near slot area and fired a shot that Backstrom stopped and then just got his glove to deflect a rebound attempt by Oleg Saprykin to preserve the Wild’s lead. Phoenix would get a late power play off of a Keith Carney interference call; but it would be the Wild that would get the best chance when Pavol Demitra blocked a Coyotes passing attempt right onto the stick of Marian Gaborik who turned on the jets to attempt a breakaway. Phoenix’s Ed Jovanovski raced back and managed to get in front of Gaborik, but the Slovakian sniper would put on the breaks and watch the Coyotes’ blueliner slide by before letting loose a wicked wrister that Joseph would have to hold onto. One other tremendous flurry for the Coyotes would again end up coming short when Backstrom would make a great save on Shane Doan and then while on his back manage to get in the way of Yanic Perreault’s attempt to shovel the puck in preserving the Wild’s lead and giving Minnesota a huge 1-0 victory.

Heroic is the adjective that comes to mind in describing Backstrom’s play last night, earning him the first star of the game and according to the NHL; and also the first star for the entire league according to Nhl.com. Backstrom had his 2nd shutout of the season with a stellar 29 save performance. Teamates and the Wild’s coaching staff were very impressed by the former Karpat Oulu star’s performance last night, “ He saved the win for us,” said Wild Head Coach Jacques Lemaire to Wild.com. Lemaire Added, “He made some great saves. He played good, I’m telling you. He looked poised and was really impressive there, especially in the third.”

One area where Jacques Lemaire was not overly impressed with was the Wild’s lack of offense which is disappointing considering how well the team forechecked for most of the game, “ When you do have your fourth line (the line of Smith, Veilleux and Dupuis) as the best line, it’s a problem, the other guys have to step up there.” The Wild end their 5-game road trip in Dallas on Tuesday. A win in Dallas would again be huge in maintaining its place in the Western Conference standings.

Wild Notes:

~ Wild healthy scratches were Petteri Nummelin and Derek Boogaard, meanwhile Manny Fernandez, and Kurtis Foster all of whom are nursing injuries. It has been speculated by the Minneapolis Star Tribune’s Michael Russo that Fernandez could be out of the Wild’s lineup for a few weeks after re-injuring his MCL against St. Louis.

~ Key stat: With Marian Gaborik in the lineup Minnesota is 13-4-2 and without Slovakian sniper, 15-17-2.

~ The Wild called up Shawn Belle from its AHL affiliate in Houston and he had a strong game last night.