I feel like I’ve just gone 10 rounds (OK, one round) with Boogaard. That was exhausting to cover with Thanksgiving deadlines.

I don’t even know where to begin with this wacky one. I don’t know if I’ve covered a stranger game in my life.

First of all, Marty Turco was the shakiest I’ve ever seen a goalie that a) didn’t get pulled and b) won.

For 60 minutes, Turco was literally flopping around like Sean Avery drawing a penalty. Turco probably needs a masseuse after all the spasms and jerks he performed. It’s amazing he didn’t pull a groin. Yet the Wild still blew a 3-1 lead to lose 4-3. The Wild hit, I believe, five crossbars or posts – including one from Brent Burns with eight ticks left.

On one Antti Miettinen third-period chance behind the net, Turco was again a fish out of water, but James Neal, who already had two goals, saved a goal. Eric Belanger missed one wide-open net, which came a minute after the Mikko Koivu disallowed goal, net-off-the-moorings incident I’ll get into in a second.

On one Neal goal, video goal judge Ron Foyt and supervisor Mick McGeough must have had 20-20 vision because either Neal may havepossibly scored on a high-stick or maybe Marc-Andre Bergeron scored an own goal. Bergeron seemed to complain that Neal batted it in with a high-stick and maintained that after. Yet, the puck was dropped immediately with no review.

I honestly never got a great look. Watching it live, I thought Bergeron scored. On a quick replay, I thought Neal might have gotten it with his stick near the crossbar. Regardless, the Wild was still ahead 3-2 at that point anyway.

Yet it took 10 minutes to review an obvious no-goal from Koivu (yes, Koivu had two incidents where goals were disallowed) before that coach Jacques Lemaire felt ruined the momentum and turned the tide.

Other weirdness? There was one penalty that made most dig for a rule book. The Wild was whistled for a faceoff violation minor penalty. Belanger and Burns were each kicked out of the faceoff circle, and yes, according to rule 76.4, two players ejected for faceoff violations on one faceoff results in a penalty.

Since 1995, I’ve never covered a game with that call because usually the second center plays it safe. However, it’s the second time it’s happened to the Wild. According to head of off-ice officials Barry Fritz, it happened to the Wild in 2002. Jim Dowd was kicked out of the circle, then he also jumped too soon to get the team the penalty.

Other weirdness? Derek Boogaard hit one Dallas Stars player so hard, the player, Nicklas Grossman, had to yank his jersey from between the glass to free himself.

Other weirdness? Burns played some shifts as a defenseman. What could be any weirder than that? Burns, a defenseman who has been playing wing since Oct. 30, had to play defense for the final six minutes of the first because Marek Zidlicky left the bench for an undisclosed reason (injury or equipment). But Zidlicky returned.

OK, first on the first Koivu no-goal, with the Wild up 3-1 on a second-period power play, he took a one-timer that clanked the crossbar, then post. The red light went off, but play continued until referee Tom Kowal blew play dead an emphatically signaled that it was a goal.

Replays I saw were crystal clear that it wasn’t a goal, yet it took an unbelievable 10 minutes for Foyt, McGeough and Toronto to overturn Kowal. Look, I’m all for being right, but come on.

Lemaire felt that turned momentum. Neal cut it to 3-2 on that one goal I mentioned earlier.

Then, early in the third, it looked like Koivu made it 4-2. With Turco again diving around six feet out of his net, Koivu scored into an empty net. Kowal, showing no awareness that the net was off, signaled goal. He then saw the net was off and correctly waved it off.

Replays showed moments earlier, Turco knocked the net off himself.

Lemaire was furious, saying Turco’s done this three times to the Wild, he’s got a history of it and then sarcastically looked into the TV cameras and said, “Now they’ll know. Next time, just watch. Maybe it will happen.”

Because of deadline, I had to make a choice between waiting for Koivu, who was getting treatment, and getting Turco. I chose Turco because I wanted reaction to Lemaire’s accusation.

I flew into the Turco scrum and interrupted. Turco admitted that he’s knocked nets off before when he’s bumped just to make sure it’s off, but he said this time it was unintentional. He said he lost his balance and used the crossbar to regain his balance.

He also said sarcastically, “I’m actually impressed that [Lemaire’s] been paying attention to what I’ve been doing historically.” And added, “They probably deserve a better fate tonight, but I don’t give a [you know what].”

Turco, by the way, did say he thinks plays like that should be discretionary. In other words, Koivu’s goal would have gone in even if the net wasn’t off, so he feels the ref should have the discretion. But as Turco said, “That’s not the rule.”

Still, the Wild was ahead 3-2. Belanger, who scored an earlier goal, had a breakaway try, deked Turco to the ice, but missed the net with a chance to make it 4-2. It was costly because Brad Richards tied the score minutes later and then Loui Eriksson scored the eventual winner with seven minutes left.

Belanger fell on the knife for his missed net. Last game against Washington, the Wild gave up three goals in the last five minutes but survived. Belanger warned that it was going to burn the Wild if it doesn’t stop (Wild blew a two-goal at home against Buffalo to lose in overtime, too).

“I wish I had an answer. We let another lead get away from us. Frustrating, really frustrating,” Belanger said. “We were in control of that game. I don’t know. Two quick goals. I wish I had an answer so we could correct it and never do it again. We got burned today. I said we were going to get burned and we got burned today.”

It’s only the fifth time and first since Nov. 4, 2006, that the Wild scored three or more goals at home and lost in regulation. Niklas Backstrom, who was fuming after the game that the Wild didn’t recognize that the bounces were going the other way and didn’t play safer, lost for the first time in regulation after carrying a lead into the third period (44-1-3).

Other stuff: Belanger (98th career goal), Owen Nolan (140th career power-play goal) and Andrew Brunette (32nd career goal at Xcel) scored goals.

The Wild is 1-3 on the homestand, and this was to a porous Dallas team (19 points behind San Jose entering tonight and one win in its past seven).

Stephane Veilleux played his 300th game.

Nolan’s goal was his first since Oct. 25.

Martin Skoula got his first point since March 24 on Brunette’s goal.

Burns has 98 career points.

The Wild’s two-goal first period was amazingly just its second of the season and first at home.

Minnesota is 2-8-3 in its past 13 against the old North Stars.

The Wild has played six straight one-goal games (3-3).

OK, I’m fried. Good night, and have a Happy Turkey Day everybody.
 

—————————————————————————————– 

OK, here we go. Craig Weller and Colton Gillies scratched. Doug Janik out for Dallas. 

Tonight is the Wild’s 20th game, nearly the quarter mark.

ENTERING TONIGHT’S GAME, here’s some first-quarter Wild highlights as released by the NHL:

C Mikko Koivu posted 12 assists in his first seven games, the most
since Wayne Gretzky had 13 for the Los Angeles Kings in 1993-94; Koivu
leads the Wild in scoring with 5-14–19 in 19 games . . . The Wild’s
penalty-killing is the best in the NHL, allowing seven power-play goals in
73 times shorthanded for a 90.4% success rate. No club in the expansion era
has finished a season at 90% or better - the 1999-00 Dallas Stars came
closest at 89.3% . . . G Niklas Backstrom ranks among NHL goaltending
leaders in all major categories, including wins (tied for second, 12), save
percentage (third, .930), shutouts (T-second, two) and goals-against
average (fourth, 2.05). Backstrom has played in 18 of Minnesota’s 19 games
. . . Returning to Minnesota after playing three seasons with the Colorado
Avalanche, LW Andrew Brunette has a share of the team goal-scoring lead
(six) and ranks third in points (6-5–11 in 19 games). Brunette is the
NHL’s active leader in consecutive games played (472).

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