Wild 3, Phoenix Coyotes 2
Posted on November 2nd, 2008 – 12:17 AMBy Michael Russo
Considering Brent Burns got hurt in warmups and the Wild lost Tomas Mojzis got hurt two shifts in when he took a slap shot to the body and Marian Gaborik and Owen Nolan were nursing wounds back in Minnesota, pretty gutsy victory tonight from the Wild.
Benoit Pouliot, Mikko Koivu and Eric Belanger got the goals, and Belanger was superb all night.
Koivu won 16 of 24 draws and scored a goal on eight shots.
The Burns injury — everybody is hush-hush on — but he’s expected to play Tuesday in San Jose. Burns was on the original lineup and Tomas Mojzis was a scratch.
Prior to the puck drop, Lemaire had to frantically call the referee over to change it and inform the Coyotes, or the Wild would have been in deep trouble. He told the ref that Mojzis would be there in a few minutes. So since Mojzis wasn’t in warmups, he wasn’t even on the bench when the game started. I don’t know if I’ve ever covered such a bizarre situation.
And then to top it off, Mojzis gets hurt.
Par for the course with this team right now.
I was really impressed with the play of defenseman Erik Reitz, who filled in well in 11-plus minutes. He was physical and safe.
Pouliot did a solid job, and I’ll let you read the gamer for Jacques’ funny quote on him.
It was a pretty entertaining game. There was one insane shift where the Wild got trapped in its own zone for almost three minutes in the second period — the zone furthest from the bench — thanks to two icings. Look at the time on ice chart on nhl.com, but you’ll see Schultz, Johnsson and Belanger played 2 1/2 minutes. You should have seen their heavy legs when they finally were able to make their way to the bench.
Niklas Backstrom was solid, making 25 saves and improving to 7-0 against the Coyotes. It was the Wild’s eighth straight win over Phoenix and fourth in a row here.
To go with that Gillies, Turris story from the previous blog and my notebook in the paper, Gillies assisted on Koivu’s goal.
Funny moment during the game. The Jumbotron was doing its version of the kissing contest with the background music of Hot Chocalate’s “You Sexy Thing.” They showed Stephane Veilleux and James Sheppard on the screen, and the crowd roared when Veilleux gave Sheppard a peck on the helmet.
OK, that’s it for now. Another early flight in the morning to Northern California, so I won’t complain about this one. Just an fyi, I would not be shocked at all if Jacques cancels practice tomorrow to give this running on empty team a much-needed rest. There are two days in between the game against San Jose, and the Wild hasn’t had a day off in like two weeks.
So you might not see much on the blog until there’s an injury report provided by the team. Mojzis will be evaluated tomorrow. Burns is expected to play. And Owen Nolan isn’t being evaluated until Monday anyway.
47 Responses to "Wild 3, Phoenix Coyotes 2"
What would’ve happened if Lemaire hadn’t gotten that lineup change in? I assume they’d have started the game shorthanded (would the opening faceoff have been in the Wild end?). Would Mojzis not be allowed to dress and they’d be short a man?
Do they have to start 20 players? That is the max, I know but do they? They were already down to 19 in less than 5 minutes into the game.
SRV strikes me as the sort of guy who will acknowledge the kiss cam. Gotta love guys like that. He’s just lucky Shep didn’t get the same idea at the same time.
Love hearing that Reitzy had a good game. Maybe he’ll get to do something besides run the popcorn machine.
Gotta love SRV, that is too funny.
I thought it was an informal (or formal even) rule that the Kiss Cam at arenas would never show two men (usually it was two fans of the away team) because the uh.. “alternately oriented” groups got all angry at arenas for making fun of their uh… “circumstances.”
“alternately oriented” groups got all angry at arenas for making fun of their uh… “circumstances.”
lawlz!
That’s why I’m a professional writer, Austin.
… or something like that.
All those penalties in the Boston game and Chara had none of them! I traded Anze Kopitar for him! What a worthless slug! (Okay, well it was Kopitar-Streit for Carter-Chara, but I got Streit back when silly Nick cut him.)
Well Kev, I tried to be… but apparently I fail. Of course, I decided I didn’t like it about halfway through my senior year… oops.
Oh yeah Kev, how bout them Panthers today?? 4 OT’s to beat ND?
Yeah, but I’m good. 
Eh. Yeah. Go Pitt.
Set your clocks back tonight!
I figured you may have seen the game since you are in the area. It was a kicker fiesta. Typical Pitt/Dave Moustache fashion.
I caught bits and pieces. I was covering a high school soccer championship game but the place it was at is real nice and had a TV turned to the game. It coincided with the game I was supposed to be covering so I managed to see just snippets.
I’m not a big college football fan. Just so much wrong with it. And Pitt’s been a joke lately anyway.
Pitt is good this year. In the top 25 and they have a LEGIT sophmore RB. They usually disappoint though, so i am not getting my hopes too high.
I think once I figured out that the hours are long and that I did not like prodding people for information, that is when I decided I didn’t want to be a reporter. Writing is fun, but it’s tough sometimes.
Pitt is good this year.
Debatable. They were embarrassed at home by Rutgers last week, lost to Bowling Green to start the year, and nearly lost to Buffalo. They probably could/should be 8-0. McCoy is awesome though, yes.
Writing: Yeah, the hours suck. I’m not a people person either, yet I’ve discovered a knack for the field. My best professor from college was the same way; he and I both hate people, we hate being around them, hate talking to them, hate their very existence, yet we’re both writers, so we deal with the .. *ahem* so we deal with people all the time.
I feel that Kev. Pitt never wins when they are “supposed to”. Every time I fear they are doing well, I can’t help but think about how they are going to blow it. As an Alum I think I should be more optimistic, but I just can’t be.
The writing thing is always tricky. It definitely takes a special breed to do it well. My advanced reporting teacher at Pitt was insane… she is the one that made me realize that I never wanted to be like her. She was scary!
Bedtime.. g’night dude.
Yeah, I’m a special breed alright. But I’m not sure, in my case, if that’s a good thing.
Later.
In Nhl they have the term emergency recall of a player from minors, does this cover the injury situation with the two D men getting hurt can they call someone up without the waiver issue???????????
[…] Russo’s Rants – […]
I say give srv a long term deal just for that! Glad to hear they persevered…glad we were playing our version of the Generals!
Famous last words by Russo: “you might not see much on the blog…”
Probably means that Gaborik will get traded in 24 hours.
Or maybe he finally gets his Blackberry fixed in Silicon Valley…
Or maybe Russo is seen in The City or at his favorite Berkeley hangout…
Certainly, though, not in Oakland…
Yippie for the boys winning. Boo about all the injuries. To tired to be more vocal, stupid day light savings, stupid dogs not understanding day light savings.
KiPA- so what breed?…hiliarious…
NiNY- re:SRV- I agree.
Russo- any word on Fedoruk & the lawn gnome? Also, condolences on the blackberry.
the srv & shep tidbit is on the wild.com photo gallery.
http://wild.nhl.com/team/app/?service=page&page=MediaGalleryPlayer&galleryId=8071
Ah, I missed an interesting writing convo… I can relate, KiPA. I don’t hate people but I’m pretty introverted and hate interviewing. Hate it hate it hate it. Makes me feel like my knowledge is under the microscope. So when it comes to hockey… yikes. I’m still learning.
Steph is a workaholic. He caught my attention a few years back- the last home game for the season. He got the game winning goal. Next shift, he gets into a fight. The photo of SRV being lead off the ice is part of my hockey jpgs.
Nice to see the guys get the win.
http://www.twincities.com/ci_10878541 - Playing a shift on the wing, he stopped a clearing pass in midair and set himself up for a wrister that beat Bryzgalov just 1:29 into the period to tie the score 1-1.
It was the third goal of the season for Pouliot, who seems to improve each game.
“It was real fun,” he said. “I started at center, and they switched me to wing and I played a little more. We’ve got injuries, so it’s hard to always play the same lines. I guess Jacques gave me my chance tonight, and I tried to prove him right.”
All I want for Christmas is Benny on wing. Congrats on a great untelevised victory Wild!
Go Benny.
Hey, KiPA, anyone you want me to take a look at today as the Aeros play the Baby Pens?
How about this anonuncer comment last night about Matt Niskanen for Dallas when he got in a fight
Matty isn’t going to be a pretty little boy anymore.
Very proffesional, especially since everyone was matching up 1-1 so nobody got double teamed (unwritten rule of hockey)
Good to see Russo getting back in the good graces of the GM question though who paid for lunch the other day?
I just saw the highlights and Wild fans were gipped.
They didn’t show Pouliot’s goal or Koivu’s goal. Only Belanger’s since it was the GWG. Of course, they showed both Phoenix goals. NOT FAIR!
WTH?!
Yes, very tacky on the part of Phoenix. The Wild’s video person needs to borrow the game film from the coaches and show us those goals.
Ms. C: Luca Caputi (19), Dustin Jeffrey (21), Janne Pesonen (25), Ben Lovejoy (6), Danny Richmond (44).
Also, I hate interviewing too. Not good at it.
Okay, I’ll put their names in my notes to keep an eye out for anything interesting with those 5.
sunshine: WTH? Nothing! The only highlights were those shot by Phoenix-area TV stations for their 11 PM news, since neither team bothered to have the game telecast. ‘NHL: On The Fly’ on the NHL Network had NO highlights whatsoever.
Wild fans were not ‘gipped’. Just screwed over by the Gophers, Mavericks, Huskies, Bulldogs, Timber-chihuahuas…all of whom were on local TV yesterday. Not so the Wild.
So there.
Thank you, dear. Caputi scored like 50 goals and 100-some points his last year in junior so we’re hoping, if we don’t trade for one, that he becomes Sid’s winger.
Interesting. We’ll see how well he stands out in the crowd.
He’s still young though, so he’s still very much a work in progress. That big season sorta came out of nowhere.
Sounds familiar…
Hopefully Caputi scores nothing today and likes it. Get there early for your Barack Obama bobblehead.
Atta way, Aaron.
TD VIKINGS!!!!
Meh. Stupid Texans…
Yay for a Vikings win! An a bigger YAY for a NYG INT vs Dallas! I hate them Cowgirls!
food
