In the words of Pierre-Marc Bouchard,  “We found a way to make it exciting again.”

No kidding. The Wild nearly coughed up a second consecutive two-goal third-period lead tonight, but the dozen or so eyes in the video war room saw differently in Toronto.

With 11.5 seconds left, Rick Nash redirected a shot from the high slot that bounced by goalie Niklas Backstrom for what referee Steve Kozari ruled the tying goal.

Referee Dan Marouelli, Kozari and linesmen Mark Wheler and Vaughan Rody came together for a conference in the ref’s crease. They sent it to Toronto. If the 6-foot-4 Nash’s stick was above the crossbar, it should be no goal.

According to NHL Senior Executive VP Colin Campell in an email to me, the ref’s ruled good goal, but “we did not have a view that could prove it was a good goal and conclusively.”

So they overturned the decision, and the Wild skated off with a 2-1 win. Ironically, all 30 teams were in action tonight, so there were a dozen people in the video war room. Because it’s such a rare night — second time in history 30 teams were playing 15 games — the NHL allowed an NHL.com writer to blog behind-the-scenes stuff from the war room.

Here’s Mike Morreale’s blog with interesting stuff about the Wild decision.

Owen Nolan had a goal and an assist in his first game back after missing three with a leg injury. Wild PR dude Ryan Stanzel came up with a great note.

Xcel Energy Center became the 47th different arena in which the 36-year-old Nolan has scored a goal. He had been held without a goal in 12 prior games at Xcel Energy Center. He did, however, score a goal in the Met Center in Bloomington against the Minnesota North Stars on Oct. 10, 1991 - 6,225 days ago. The Wild also became the seventh team for which Nolan has scored a goal.

Mikko Koivu assisted on the goal. Koivu was just scintillating tonight. Made plays, had six shots won 16 of 26 draws. Just a horse.

Pierre-Marc Bouchard also scored a goal, and the assist came on Marek Zidlicky’s first point as a Wild. He airmailed a shot so off the mark (it deflected off the glass to Bouchard), Zidlicky was seen laughing hysterically after.

Niklas Backstrom was brilliant with 25 saves. He is 5-0-1 with a 1.98 GAA and .930 SP. He robbed Derick Brassard and Rick Nash on breakaways and is 12-0-5 with a 1.74 GAA and .941 SP in his last 17 regular-season decisions. He’s 10-0-1 in his last 11 decisions. Jacques Lemaire said Backstrom would be in the net until he complained to him he’s tired, so Josh Harding will have to sit and wait for his chance. There are back-to-back games at Dallas and home against Montreal this week, so perhaps one of those?

Columbus goalie Pascal Leclaire, who seems to get hurt every other day,  left this game in the second period with a sprained ankle. He wasn’t very good tonight. He appeared to be wearing a trampoline rather than a chest protector.

He coughed up juicy rebound after juicy rebound, but the Wild just couldn’t get to the pucks early. The injury was an aggravation of an injury he suffered in preseason, coincidentally when Derek Boogaard barrelled into him. That’s according to Columbus Dispatch writer Tom Reed (not Wild broadcaster Tom Reid).

Speaking of Boogaard, he got into a humorous human bumper car contest with Jason Chimera in the second period. They just kept going after each other with hard checks on one shift.

Lemaire wasn’t happy after this one, which again proves my point from yesterday. He ain’t pleased when his team doesn’t play the way he wants it to, even if it wins (that’s an awkward-sounding sentence, but IT’S the Star Tribune’s style). And tonight, after blowing a third-period lead to Buffalo, the Wild again gave Columbus the comeback scent, and was lucky to leave with the two points.

But the Wild is 5-0-1, the only team in the West still without a regulation loss.

Lastly, I want to apologize to Wild medical trainer Don Fuller, whom I clearly jinxed today. I mentioned this morning how Jacques Lemaire was worried I put the hex on him. Lemaire was convinced he’d get nailed with a puck when I was asking questions about the dangers of being on the bench.

Well, I didn’t mention that I also asked Fuller if he had ever gotten nailed with a puck on the bench. Fuller said no.

Well, nine hours later, Fuller got hit by a puck on his head today, and he never returned, so I hope he’s doing OK.

The Wild didn’t have an injury report, I’m guessing, because Fuller was in no condition to give it. Amazinly, his assistant trainer, Travis Green took a stick to the head Thursday and got five stitches.

Marian Gaborik was placed on IR to make room for Nolan.

Scratches tonight were Colton Gillies, Erik Reitz and Tomas Mojzis.

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 25th, 2008 at 4:54 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.