First, this was an outstanding hockey game tonight. The desperation from both sides was evident as everybody skated hard, fast and with physicality. Nearly 80 registered hits in the game.

The Wild battled back from a 2-0 deficit to get a point, but it gave out a costly two to Dallas, the team that was directly ahead in the standings. So it entered one back, now it’s two (74-72). And right now, Nashville, which entered the night with 71 points, is up 1-0 on Phoenix at the end of two periods and Edmonton, which is tied in points with Minnesota right this moment, is tied 1-1 with Colorado at the end of two.

So this could very well still become a really bad night for the Wild. Remember, I wrote about a month ago that down the stretch, there are more and more three-point games and they’re the things that kill teams this time of year if you’re on the outside looking in.

However, the Wild has had a chance to get that extra point, but has played to three straight one-point games and five in the past 13. Over that span, the Wild’s only won four games. Well, the way this thing is going, wins could very well be a much-needed tiebreaker at the end. And the Wild, which had the edge in wins for much of the year, still only has 32 — which right now is one fewer than Nashville and one fewer than Dallas.

Got all that? I’ve got a headache from tabulating all that. Basically, what I’m saying, is none of what I just mentioned is good.

Back to the game, the Wild gave up three goals tonight on little mistakes in its own zone. On one goal, Nick Schultz and Mikku Koivu got caught in between and not taking the body. On another, Koivu left the front of the net, where Kim Johnsson wasn’t. But it all came after a Johnsson turnover. And on the OT winner by noted scorer Nick Grossman, Johnsson skated himself into a screen. But other than that, the Wild did play a very strong game. It controlled play for much of the game and was even playing well when it was down 2-0, finally fighting back to a tie. And you can’t even blame this on sitting back and playing conservatively in the third.

The Wild outshot Dallas 8-6, and could have won it on Peter Olvecky’s hit post.

You might not have seen this on TV, but there were some frantic moments on the Wild bench in the second while the team was killing Stephane Veilleux’s double minor. Koivu, who has been slipping all over the ice lately (fell five times in the first period in Denver), broke his skate blade, and he sat on the bench without a skate during the entire kill.

But Koivu, new skate and all, returned to start the rally. Big game by Andrew Brunette, who scored a goal and an assist, on one knee. Cal Clutterbuck was terrific (two drawn penalties, seven hits). P-M Bouchard, very good. James Sheppard was solid — although when he’s ahead of the play six feet from Marty Turco, don’t pass backward. That’s why he has only four goals.

That’s it. I’ve got a 3:30 a.m. wakeup call staring at me as I head to St. Louis by way of Memphis. It’ll be interesting to see the Wild’s legs Sunday in St. Louis. Not an easy back to back, having to fly in and playing less than 24 hours after tonmight’s start time. Plus, half the team was getting treatment after this one. I never saw Koivu, Brunette, Fritsche, Schultz and a host of others.

By the way, Olli Jokinen has eight goals in six games for Calgary. Just thought I’d mention.

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Game is 30 minutes away, but enforcer Derek Boogaard will play tonight for the first time since Feb. 27. Boogaard was suspended five games after an elbow on former Calgary forward Brandon Prust, then was a healthy scratch against San Jose, then was sick against Colorado.

Colton Gillies, Kurtis Foster and Craig Weller are out. Tonight is Niklas Backstrom’s 58th game, tying his own team record shared with Manny Fernandez.

Mark Parrish is back for Dallas tonight, and after talking to him this morning, he’s extremely motivated to play the Wild. Uh, no he’s not. Erroneous information, ha. Actually, he was out there during warmups and I assumed he was playing without counting the Stars had 21 guys in warmups. Never assume in this business, a cardinal rule I just broke. He’s a scratch.

Incidentally, I jokingly asked him if he introduced himself to the video goal judge here in Dallas.

If you remember two years ago, Parrish scored a goal here that didn’t count. After a major Martin Skoula moment, Dallas came back and won. It was later revealed that Parrish scored, but the video goal judge was asleep at the switch. The next day, Lemaire blamed only Parrish for not realizing at the time that he scored — enough at least to complain to the refs to go upstairs.

Parrish said he’s talked to Marty Turco a few times about it, and Turco finally gave him the old, “OK, maybe it was in.” Parrish said he’d like to have a few choice words with the off-ice official here that put him in an unbelievably bad spot with the Wild’s coaches (even though the whole thing was ludicrous that Parrish was blamed to begin with).

By the way, remember, the last time these two teams met in Minnesota, Lemaire went loco after the game for Turco intentionally knocking the net off the moorings (as he does often) and costing the Wild a goal.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 14th, 2009 at 5:41 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.