Youngblood here.

As I just told Russo — who is out somewhere carousing with his friends — the Wild has rallied from three-goal deficits to win twice in franchise history. And I have had the good luck to cover both games. The other one was in Nashville in the fall of 2006. Remember?

All I remember about that game is having a near-meltdown in the press box trying to re-write my story on deadline. Tonight? Many of the players said they felt this coming after Rolston scored late in the second. I didn’t. But I did after Gaborik scored in the third.

Belanger said he thought the third period tonight might have been the team’s best of the season. It was certainly close. The pressure the reformulated Wild lines  put on the Oilers was impressive and you just got the feeling the game was going to go into overtime.

That said, here are some random — and, I hope, lucid — thoughts about this game, in no particular order:

1. When Lemaire changed up his lines, putting Rolston, Bouchard and Demitra together on one line and Gaborik with Belanger and Parrish, the result was amazing. How good was the puck movement on the Demitra line in the third period?

2. The difference between the Gaborik of periods one and two and the one who showed up in the third was astounding, much like the five-goal Gaborik we saw a few games back. But since that game, through two periods Saturday, Gaborik had been a minus-8. But he came out flying in the third period. Staios had no choice but to hook him in overtime.

 3. If victory is about the little things, lets give props to Sean Hill and Nummelin — and not just for Nummelin’s goal. Hill and Nummelin made great plays to keep the puck in the offensive zone before the Rolston and Gaborik goals, respectively.

 That’s it. I have practice tomorrow so I’ll get back to you then. Have a good night.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 29th, 2007 at 11:09 pm and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.