In the name of John Sterling, “Wild wins! Theeeeee Wild wins!!!!!!!!!!!”

That’s something you can’t say everyday, so you might as well scream it, eh?

Here’s something else you can’t say everyday. Colton Gillies scored a goal tonight with assists from Derek Boogaard and Krys Kolanos. I’m going to go out on a limb: That battery will never occur again.

What a cool storyline tonight. Not only does the Wild finally get off the schneid, but Gillies, the 19-year-old rookie who had never scored an NHL goal, gets the game-winner against the team in which his distant great uncle, Clark Gillies, starred for.

Gillies was one of my favorite players ever growing up an Islanders fan. The guy was a punishing power forward. Physical and scored. In fact, before I even asked Colton Gillies a question at the draft in Columbus two years ago, I told him that. However, Colton Gillies has never met Clark, but recently, a reporter gave Colton Clark’s business card because Clark’s apparently been following his career and wants to go to dinner with him when the Wild goes to New York in March.

Colton Gillies was on top of the world. He drove the net and the puck just made its way over Joey MacDonald’s paddle early in the third to trigger a three-goal period.

Amazingly, who led the rush but that noted speedster, playmaker and stick-handler, Derek Boogaard. It was Boogey’s first shift since the first period. He said that will be his new role — skate the puck in, dish off and go to the net.

Gillies’ goal gave the Wild its first lead since Dec. 3, a span of 408 minutes, 16 seconds (you heard me).

It’s hard to dominate a game the way the Wild dominated this one, yet with a minute left in the second, the Wild trailed 1-0. The fans were restless as MacDonald stone-cold robbed Wild players continually. Antti Miettinen and Andrew Brunette hit pipes, and the fans were getting frustrated until Stephane Veilleux scored. It was Veilleux’s first point since Nov. 22.

Funny story, but this morning, Veilleux and I were chatting and he asked me what the Timberwolves’ losing streak was up to. I said 11, and he was relieved because the Wild had some breathing room.

The Wild’s win tonight snapped a six-game losing streak (first win since Dec. 3) as it moved back into seventh in the West heading into tomorrow’s game in St. Louis.

The Wild outshot the Blues 39-16 (season-highs in shots for and against). The differential of 23 tied a franchise record.

Mikko Koivu and Pierre-Marc Bouchard also scored.

The Wild gave up the first goal for the seventh straight game. It hasn’t scored in the first period in seven of the past eight games. It’s 8-1-1 against the East, 8-12-1 against the West.

The Islanders lost former Wild defenseman Andy Sutton in the first period with a broken foot. The Wild lost defenseman Marc-Andre Bergeron with a “lower body” injury. I didn’t see it happen or know what happened. His last shift came with 7:10 left in the game, and quite frankly, I thought he was benched because he wasn’t stellar tonight.

Erik Reitz will play for him tomorrow in St. Louis. Eric Belanger (ill) also didn’t make the trip to St. Louis.

I, however, will make the trip to St. Louis. I won’t be there in time for the Wild’s optional skate tomorrow, so I will talk to you before the game.

Obviously, the roster freeze will come and go without a Wild trade. Doug Risebrough gave me the old “nothing I can tell you” when I asked what’s going on, but I know for a fact that he was working something all day today. But at least before the deadline, it didn’t happen. We’ll see if there’s a framework in place for when the freeze ends Dec. 27.

Also, if the Wild put in a waiver claim for Jussi Jokinen (which would make sense considering its need for center), that can happen tomorrow. But there are a lot of teams that have first dibs over the Wild.

Saturday note: Jokinen cleared waivers, meaning none of the 29 teams put in a claim.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 19th, 2008 at 6:31 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.