For the first time in who knows how long, the Wild not only won, but it got help from another team. The win could have essentially been rendered meaningless if banged-up Nashville had beaten Chicago, but the Blackhawks won in regulation, and thus, the Wild’s big win tonight against the shorthanded Flames moved the 10th-place Wild two points behind the eighth-place St. Louis Blues (deceiving because Wild has short end of most tiebreakers again most teams it’s chasing).

The Wild’s idle Saturday, next playing on NBC at 11:30 a.m. CDT at Detroit on Sunday. The Wild, on Saturday, will need help from a number of teams. St. Louis plays in Dallas. Columbus plays in Nashville. And Anaheim plays in San Jose.

Tonight, the Wild came out skating, supporting each other on the ice, and for a change, actually cashed in on opportunities by taking a 3-0 lead on a very shaky Miikka Kiprusoff. The Wild mostly benefited from the Flames, who are riddled with injuries all throughout their lineup, playing short two skaters (16), playing without defensemen Robyn Regehr, Adrian Aucoin and Cory Sarich and using two defensemen making their NHL debuts.

Andrew Brunette, Cal Clutterbuck, Owen Nolan and Marian Gaborik scored goals, 12 of 18 skaters got one point and Nik Backstrom made 27 saves for his eighth shutout of the season, 17th of his career and second against Calgary (13 at Xcel). All those are team records. He’s now 23-4-8 all-time vs. the Northwest at home and has started a team-record 17 straight games.

This was the happiest Jacques Lemaire’s been after any win this season. He used words like “proud,” and said he just sat back, watched and enjoyed.

I covered Iron Mike Keenan a long time in Florida, and there’s a reason why he’s called Captain Hook. Tonight, after Brunette and Clutterbuck scored 29 seconds apart, Keenan yanked Kiprusoff for 12 seconds.

As Lemaire quipped, that’s Keenan’s specialty.

“We needed a little bit of a timeout to get things stabilized. We didn’t start the game assertive enough, we were a little bit on our heels,” Keenan said. 

Said Brunette, “I barely even noticed actually. I saw him come back and I was like, ‘Oh, I guess they pulled him.’”

The Wild started to play sloppily in the second, coughing up the puck and taking three straight penalties, but Backstrom was good, and so was the Wild’s penalty killer. Lemaire had some funny things to say about meetings he held and didn’t hold before the game, but you can read that in the gamer.

Couple tidbits:

Clutterbuck’s goal snapped a 30-game drought (first goal since Jan. 27).

Marek Zidlicky broke Brent Burns’ team record for assists by a defenseman in a season (29).

Martin Skoula, who has played almost 20 minutes a game, amazing took only his fifth penalty of the season tonight.

Andrew Brunette has a five-game point streak (seven points).

Marian Gaborik has nine goals in 13 games this season, and six goals and nine points in seven games since returning.

Owen Nolan scored his 24th goal. Only three players have ever scored 25 goals for the Wild — Gaborik, Brian Rolston and Pavol Demitra.

Funny stuff in game notebook from Backstrom on being high-sticked by Kim Johnsson

OK, Wild practices in Detroit on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. CDT. I’ll blog later in the afternoon.

—————————————————————— 

The Wild will dress seven defensemen tonight against Calgary. Krys Kolanos is scratched.

By the way, with the Wild out of town this weekend, the USA’s under-18 world championship team is working out here in the Twin Cities. Info is below:

Full Schedule for IIHF World Under-18 Championship
Pre-Tournament Camp Announced
Practices and Games in Twin Cities Open to the Public
 
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – USA Hockey announced today the final practice and game schedule for the pre-tournament camp associated with the 2009 International Ice Hockey Federation Men’s Under-18 World Championship.

The camp, which includes all 10 teams taking part in the 2009 IIHF Men’s World Under-18 Championship, will be conducted at Ridder Arena in Minneapolis, Minn., and Schwan Super Rink in Blaine, Minn., and runs from April 2-7.

Each team will compete in at least one pre-tournament game while at the camp. The Schwan Super Rink will host three games, while Ridder Arena will be the site for six contests. Each of the teams at the camp will also conduct practices throughout the week.

All practices are free of charge and open to the public, while tickets for the pre-tournament games will be sold at the door. Adult tickets are $7 each, while youth tickets cost $5.

The 2009 IIHF Men’s World Under-18 Championship will take place on U.S. soil for the first time April 9-19 in Fargo, N.D., and Moorhead, Minn.
 

This entry was posted on Friday, April 3rd, 2009 at 5:36 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.