I can only imagine how aggravating that game had to be to watch for you Wild diehards.

To outplay a team that badly in the first 40 minutes and not get the benefit of the ‘W’ in such a significant contest?

But Jose Theodore stole this. He didn’t have to make too many acrobatic highway robberies, true, but the guy was just perfectly positioned all night.

Save after save after save after save on wave after wave after wave after wave. The Wild tied a team playoff record with 40 shots. Its 17 first-period shots were a playoff record.

He was brilliant with 38 stops and stole the Avs the game and quite possibly the series.

As you know, 80.6 percent of teams that win Game  of a 2-2 series go on to win. I’m not sure how that percentage changes when that Game 5 victor heads back home for Game 6.

Couple things:

– Again tonight you see the cost of not having Nick Schultz and Kurtis Foster. Sean Hill’s penalty, coming because he was dead tired due to Mikko Koivu’s defensive-zone turnover, led to the power play that led to Wojtek Wolski’s go-ahead goal.

Hill has been at the center of several problems in the series.

How about the power play? Think Foster would have been on the power-play point tonight, or center Eric Belanger, who’s got two assists and not a single goal since Feb. 20?

Unfortunately, this is what having a depleted blue line does. Guys get into positions they haven’t been in all year, and eventually it costs you.

That’s not excuse for them. It’s just reality. Directly above my head tonight was a television booth filled with Schultz, Foster, Mark Parrish and Branko Radivojevic.

And Niklas Backstrom should have stopped the second goal and needed to make a big save on the third.

– I was talking this morning with my Denver Post colleague — yes, the guy you all love — and we agreed on one thing: This series would be decided by which team’s star broke out first — Colorado’s Paul Stastny or Minnesota’s Marian Gaborik.

Stastny scored the winner tonight, and Gaborik wasn’t just snake-bitten, he was terrible. Looked to me like he’s completely devoid of confidence and caving under the pressure.

He showed his frustration every time he skated to the bench after yet another shift in which he either fouled up a scoring chance by missing the net or whiffing or getting robbed or turning the puck over by just losing it off his stick.

He’s squeezing that composite stick of his so tight, it’s amazing it didn’t snap.

– I know this has been an even series. I know the Wild has controlled the play for much. But you can’t escape this astonishing fact.

The Wild has led 4 minutes, 31 seconds of a possible 324:23 in the series. It’s been scored on first in all five games - three in a row by ex-Wild Andrew Brunette, although Pierre-Marc Bouchard’s first-period goal was Minnesota’s first within the first 40 minutes in the series.

– As you know the Wild has twice won a series when trailing 3-2 (actually 3-1), so obviously it’s not over. I think the Wild has won two in a row before

– The Wild is 4-9 in home playoff games. Tonight would have marked the Wild’s first set of consecutive home victories in history, which is also unbelievable if you think about it.

Got a few email complaining about the disallowed goal. 1)Benoit Pouliot was three feet offside. Pierre Racicot might be the best linesman in the NHL. He didn’t get that wrong. 2) Its a nonfactor anyway because most the time goalies let up when they hear the whistle, so who knows if the puck goes in anyway if there’s no offside.

The Wild and Avalanche aren’t practicing Friday. Talk to you from Denver, although it might not be until late because I don’t get access to the team until after it gets to the hotel around 5 o’clock.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 17th, 2008 at 7:35 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.