First, here’s an awesome column written by Jim Souhan on Mikko Koivu’s Gang of 30. 

Here is the Kurtis Foster-led notebook.

This’ll change dramatically by the time the Wild plays next Wednesday at home against Colorado, but the Wild’s currently seventh in the conference after tonight’s shootout win.

I like afternoon games. I don’t normally get to watch overtime — or even shootouts — for the matter because when they’re at night, I’m busy punching away at my keyboard with “if they win” paragraphs and “if they lose” paragraphs. And then you pray, you chop out the right ones when you send when the game ends.

Because there was no deadline today, I got to watch every moment of this game and overtime.

Nik Backstrom is now 4-0 in shootouts and 12 for 12 on shootout shots this season. Remember, this was the worst shootout goalie in the NHL the past two years. But he was pretty humiliated by that fact, and worked his you know what off last summer to improve in that situation. Finland has some awesome shootout shooters out there, so back home, Backstrom grabbed the Jussi Jokinens of the world and took attempt after attempt against them to improve.

Just another example of Backstrom’s professionalism. 

Mikko Koivu scored the shootout winner. Seven guys missed before his attempt, and he beat his old goalie, Dwayne Roloson. That’s why he didn’t go with his trademark shootout shot. He knew Roloson would be expecting it. And it came with his 30 comrades from the Finnish Elite League team, Turku, chanting, “Mikk-uh, Mikk-uh, Mikk-uh,” during the attempt.

At least that’s how it sounded.

Pretty dreadful game at times tonight. If I had solitaire on my laptop, I would have started playing it in the middle of the second. Instead, I just resorted to asking the PR guy if he could look up the Wild’s record “in the most boring games of the season.”

Not much was happening on both sides, although the Oilers, in my opinion, was causing it, not the Wild. Two reasons: One, as Eric Belanger theorized, they played last night, so they were saving energy for the third. Two, the Oilers have had such a bad record against the Wild the past few years because they try to run and gun it through the neutral-zone wall that is the Wild. This time, it took a conservative, sit-back approach, and when both teams play that way, you get that.

Scary moment in the first. Nick Schultz pushed Erik Cole on top of Backstrom, and he looked down for the count. Jacques Lemaire complained that that’s what Edmonton does — wait ’til it gets bumped and then fall. Backstrom, who might have been exaggerating it, didn’t move at first, but much to everybody’s relief, he got up.

Funny moment in the second, but after an offsides, Derek Boogaard redirected the puck into an empty net. The fans cheered like he really scored his first goal since January 2006, but I don’t think it counts as breaking the streak.

Schultz played his 500th tonight. Owen Nolan played his 1,100th. Cal Clutterbuck got seven more hits to give him an NHL-high 201. Niklas Backstrom is now a sparkling 19-4-6 at home in his career against the Northwest Division. The Wild has now beaten Edmonton in a franchise-record-tying nine straight home games (outscoring the Oil 33-11 in the process).

Koivu is 14 for 31 in shootouts. Antti Miettinen, who scored his first career shortie, has 34 points, tying his career-high already. He had eight shots. Eric Belanger scored his 11th goal — two off his total last year.

That’s it for now. I’ll be calling Kurtis Foster soon, who is playing tonight against the Chicago Wolves. Night.

Owen Nolan back after two games off and Cal Clutterbuck in after missing yesterday’s practice. Colton Gillies is the lone healthy scratch.

By the way, if you want to watch Kurtis Foster’s debut at 5, for $6, fans can watch Aeros games via AHL Live here.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 8th, 2009 at 1:58 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.