The Wild is rolling now, although for about a 25-minute stretch tonight, it looked like the Wild popped the champagne early, then funneled it.

But Marian Gaborik made it all better with another dramatic OT winner, his third of the season, to hit his career-best and franchise-record 40th goal and 80th point all in one shot.

And much to Jacques Lemaire’s delight, it was a great defensive play by Gaborik, Pavol Demitra and Nick Schultz that triggered that one final odd-man rush that led to Gaborik’s winner with 1:50 left.

Brian Rolston hit he 30-goal mark for his third straight season in Minnesota and Mikko Koivu was sensational as the Wild won for a fifth straight time at home.

The Wild has 95 points, four ahead of Colorado. Calgary has 90 points. The Flames also have one game in hand, but needless to say, Thursday’s meeting here at the X could be for the Northwest Division title. 

– Hysterical quote from boiling over Joel Quenneville tonight on his bench minor for screaming at referee Dave Jackson: “I’ll take the hit, and I’ll blame the referee for getting me so excited.”

– The win was Jacques Lemaire’s 499th in the regular season. His 500th will tie Toe Blake for 11th all-time, which you know will be sweet since Toe Blake seemed to forget Jacques Lemaire’s name a lot when putting out Canadiens on the power play.

I remember vividly. OK, I don’t.

– G Niklas Backstrom made 24 saves for his 32nd win. He’s 6-0-4 in his last 10 decisions, 17-2-6 in his last two March and Aprils (OK, April hasn’t come this season yet) and is a perfect 5-0 in his last five home starts with a stellar 0.79 GAA and .972 SP.

– Brent Burns’ assist was his 19th power-play point, breaking Kurtis Foster’s team record while he’s laying in a Twin Cities hospital bed. REAL NICE! Maybe Burns will break his other leg, too.

– The Wild is 22 for 22 on the PK the last five games, although Ruslan Salei’s tying goal came just after a Colorado power play expired tonight.

– Minnesota’s won four straight vs. Colorado, a team record, and remember the two teams conclude the regular season in Denver in a week.

– The Wild has outscored its opponents 6-0 in the first period this homestand.

– Both teams would probably endorse bigger nets. The ringing of posts was common tonight. Tons and tons, including three memorable ones by Rolston, Radivojevic, Schultz and Gaborik.
– Don’t be surprised if the Wild signs Ryan Jones now that Miami’s season has ended at the hands of BC.

– Did a Koivu notebook lead for Monday on his faceoff cheating lately. I think you’ll find it interesting since this was a blog topic last week. See, you all give me story ideas, which is one big reason why I love the blog.

Also, read Rolston’s quotes on Koivu. Pretty amazing.

Wild is taking Monday off with its next game not coming till Thursday. But I’m sure you’ll hear from me. 

The 2008 Stanley Cup Playoffs begin on April 9 and 10. Minnesota’s first round opponent and schedule will not be determined until the conclusion of the NHL’s regular season on April 6.

The Minnesota Wild announced tonight that single game tickets for all home games in the first round of the 2008 Stanley Cup Playoffs will go on sale Saturday, April 5 at 9:00 a.m. at the Xcel Energy Center Box Office and at 10:00 a.m. at all Ticketmaster (www.ticketmaster.com) locations or charge by calling Ticketmaster at (651) 989-5151. A $2.00 facility fee will be added to all Wild single game playoff tickets. Ticketmaster charges are not included and are not applicable to tickets purchased at the Xcel Energy Center Box Office. A limit of four tickets per game may be purchased per person.

2008 MINNESOTA WILD CONFERENCE QUARTERFINAL TICKET PRICES

Individual Ticket Prices Conference Quarterfinal

Club Level Sides $115

Club Level Ends $105

Lower Level Sides $107

Lower Level Corners $97

Lower Level Ends $87

Standing Room Only $63

Upper Level Sides $52

Upper Level Ends $38

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 30th, 2008 at 4:33 pm and is filed under Game coverage. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.