Wild Hockey Fan

Backstrom does it again

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Playing the second of three straight games at Xcel Energy Center leading into Hockey Day, Minnesota guaranteed itself a winning homestand with a 5-1 win over the visiting Edmonton Oilers. The teams entered Thursday’s Northwest Division matchup with identical 21-18-3 records, and, in the first meeting between the teams this season, a chance to make a statement of sorts.
Pierre-Marc Bouchard scored a goal and added two assists, while Niklas Backstrom made 20 saves to remain perfect (10-0) against the Oilers as the Wild earned a 22nd win on the season.

“We were waiting for this,” said Head Coach Jacques Lemaire.

After so often playing with a 1-0 deficit, Minnesota opened the scoring for the second time in as many games, and, as with Tuesday night vs. Phoenix, did not wait terribly long to do so. While Tuesday’s surprise came in the form of the how — 46 seconds into the game — Thursday’s surprise may have come in the form of the who. Krys Kolanos scored for the first time during this calendar year to give the home team its lead.

Right wing Antti Miettinen started the scoring play along the left wing, then walked past Lubomir Visnovsky with a nifty one-handed move, pulling the puck to the outside of the defenseman and cutting around to pick it up on the inside. The righthanded shot whipped a puck across the zone on his forehand to Kolanos, who redirected it through Dwayne Roloson’s pads for a 1-0 lead at 6:25.

Minnesota had opened a 6-3 lead in shots to that point, but the Oilers took the next three on Backstrom, including one to tie the game. Backstrom made a save on a Denis Grebeshkov shot, only to have the rebound bounce near Dustin Penner, who was able to pull the puck back to a place where Liam Reddox could push it in to make it 1-1 at 11:44.

The Oilers earned back-to-back power plays with Wild penalties at 13:15 and 16:12, momentum that carried Edmonton nearly to the end of the period and to a 11-7 shots advantage with under two minutes to play.

(more…)

Philly Drops Wild

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -Two weeks on the road left the Flyers primed for a raucous return home.

Did they ever deliver against Minnesota. Philadelphia killed off every power-play attempt, ended Niklas Backstrom’s bid for three straight shutouts and, oh yeah, took sole possession of first place in the Atlantic Division.

Mike Knuble, Scott Hartnell and Scottie Upshall scored goals and the Flyers returned home from two weeks on the road to beat the Wild 3-1 on Thursday night.

“We wanted to climb into playoff position and try and climb up in our division and we have done that,” coach John Stevens said.

Hartnell’s tying goal in the second period ended Backstrom’s sh

ot at three straight shutouts. Backstrom, selected to the Western Conference All-Star team this week, stretched his shutout streak to 149 minutes, 9 seconds before Hartnell flipped a loose puck past him early in the second.

Knuble put the Flyers ahead early in the third period on Philadelphia’s first power-play opportunity, and Upshall added his sixth goal to help the Flyers win their seventh straight home game.

With the victory, the Flyers took sole possession of the Atlant

a Division lead, two points ahead of the New York Rangers.

“It’s tough when you get back because you can get complacent after a long road trip when you get back home,” Flyers center Mike Richards said. “But we could find our energy from the crowd and had a couple different players step up.”

The Flyers hadn’t played at home since Dec. 23 and went 2-2-2 on a six game, 12-day trip. They returned to a familiar setting – another packed, orange-clad crowd, chants of “Let’s go Fly-ers!” and more home dominance. The Flyers are 11-0-2 in their last 13 games at the Wachovia Center and play there two more times before heading back on the road.

(more…)