As somebody I know told me last week, “2-4 would be a great road trip.” I replied, “Are you kidding me???????? They go 2-4, and season ovah.”

Wrong as usual, but hey, none of the Wild players who left this rink with their head up tonight was satisfied with the trip. But as Antti Miettinen said, they certainly feel better about themselves being a point back from the eighth and final playoff spot heading home for a brief one-gamer against San Jose.

Huge victory against the team formally known as the Anaheim Ducks. The Ducks, who sold off UFA’s Sami Pahlsson, Kent Huskins and Travis Moen at the deadline, and dealt Chris Kunitz as well, are a shadow of what they once were.

Still, Niklas Backstrom had to be great tonight and he rebounded from his poor performance in L.A. yesterday with a 36-save effort. At one point, the Ducks outshot the Wild 20-5.

Stephane Veilleux, doing his best Brian Rolston impression, was the offensive hero tonight with his second career two-goal game, including a Brian Rolston-like slapper on a breakaway. I see Veilleux do this all the time in practice, but who’d ever think he’d get an opportunity to pull it out in the course of a game?

But with the game tied at 1 in the second, Kim Johnsson (a plus-3) forced a turnover and Owen Nolan hit Veilleux for a breakaway howitzer and 2-1 Wild lead. This came after Nick Schultz (plus-3) set up Veilleux’s first goal 68 ticks in, and before Andrew Brunette scored his 15th midway through the third after a great pass by James Sheppard (plus-3).

That goal proved huge when Scott Niedermayer scored with 21.6 seconds left on a ridiculous goal. I was wrong. I thought it was Steve Kozari, the same ref who stood in the middle of the crease looking for a puck under Niklas Backstrom in Minnesota several weeks ago, who took a Sunday stroll to the other side of the net to see if Backstrom had a puck covered, which he did. It was actually partner Denis LaRue. But there’s really only so many hours you can freeze a puck, and it, uh, thawed. 

OK, I am donzo. Finally, it’s over. I get to go back to Minnesota for a few hours before doing this all over again starting Wednesday in Denver.

I’m on a red-eye outta here tonight. The Wild’s plane is currently delayed as the team’s just sitting at John Wayne Airport.

Only nine players are skating Monday, so who knows what you’ll find on the blog tomorrow if anything because I’ve got a number of things I have to deal with when I get back to Minny.

Guess what? I’ve got Tuesday’s game against San Jose off, and making his triumphant albeit temporary return will be No. 2, Kent Youngblood.

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Finally, final game of this road trip. I’m in a fog. You should have seen me with the time change today. Last night when I went to sleep, I moved my Blackberry time up an hour because I could have sworn last time it didn’t do it automatically.

Well, it did move up an hour overnight, so all day until about 1:30, I thought it was an hour ahead of what it really was.

I also contemplated getting into an altercation with the Ducks’ mascot. He walked into the press elevator, and then started playing mascot with me, putting his bill in my face and his hand. I mean, really.

Dude, just turn off being a mascot for 20 seconds while in the elevator.

Niklas Backstrom, chased yesterday afternoon from goal at L.A., is in tonight against the Ducks.

Craig Weller is in for Colton Gillies, but coach Jacques Lemaire praised Gillies’ game recently and said this is just to give him a rest after playing three games in four nights. He said Gillies will be back in against San Jose at home Tuesday.

Derek Boogaard, however, could be in a bit of trouble. This suspension may have put himself on the outside looking in. Lemaire said Boogaard being out has shown him a different look to the team, one where he can skate four lines. He also said the Wild is not losing because Boogaard’s been out.

“We’re not being pushed around,” Lemaire said.

Brent Burns will miss his second game in a row because of illness. However, Kurtis Foster will not get a second straight game.

The Wild has recalled defenseman John Scott and he will play for Foster. He said Scott gives the Wild a different dimension than all its other defensemen and he made it sound like Scott could be here for awhile. Teams can only have four non-emergency callups after the trade deadline, so you can bet Scott is staying.

Lemaire said this was nothing against Foster: “He adds a different dimension, OK?” referring to Scott. “He’s vocal, he brings life.”

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 8th, 2009 at 9:56 am 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.