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Minnesota Wild Face Calgary Flames – Try To Break Home Losing Streak

Scott Drain — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 11:08:30 +0000

Feb 26, 2013; St. Paul, MN, USA; Minnesota Wild forward Mikko Koivu (9) against the Calgary Flames at the Xcel Energy Center. The Wild defeated the Flames 2-1 in overtime. Mandatory Credit: Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports

The Minnesota Wild take on the Calgary Flames for the 2nd time this week and 5th time this season, compiling a 3-1 record against them to date. If the Wild can achieve the same result as last Monday night, they will continue to control their own destiny in the Western Conference playoff race. They have 4 games to play and 8 points up for grabs. Entering today’s games around the league the Wild are 7th in the west with 51 points, 2 points up on 8th place Columbus and 3 points up on 9th place Detroit and 4 points ahead of 10th place Dallas. Minnesota trails 6th place St. Louis by 3 points and are 4 points back of San Jose and Los Angeles. Northwest Division leading Vancouver has 57 points, the Wild trail them by 6 with a game in hand. It’s possible to but not probable that Minnesota catches Vancouver, takes the division crown and the 3rd seed. Outside of Chicago and Anaheim at the top with 72 and 60 points respectively, the rest of the playoff spots are up for grabs between 8 teams.

The Wild play 3 of their last four games of the regular season on home ice at the Xcel Energy Center, Toight, Tuesday and Friday. Saturday they end this 48 games sprint of a regular season in Colorado. There will be no resting guys to get ready for the playoffs this season for Minnesota. Every point is precious and every game remaining a “must win”. Three of the Wild’s last four opponents are well below them in the Western Conference standings. Currently Calgary is 13th with 40 points, Edmonton is 12th with 41 and Colorado brings up the rear in 15th with just 35 points on the season. The Kings are the only squad on the remaining schedule ahead of Minnesota in the standings. L.A. is currently in 4th with 55 points.

OK now that we’ve thoroughly covered the Western Conference standings lets look at this little Wild versus Flames battle. The Flames are all but mathematically eliminated from the playoff race and headed for a probable top 5 draft pick. They also traded away Wild killer Jarome Iginla, no player has piled up more points against the Wild than Iggy, The Flames are 18-22-4 entering action tonight with a scoring average of 2.70 to the Wild’s 2.52 per game. Defensively the Wild allow an average of 2.57 goals per game, that compares favorably to Calgary’s 3.30 average per game. The Flames have the NHL’s 2nd worst goals allowed on average, leading only The Florida Panthers who allow a league worst 3.59 goals per game average. The Wild will need a very strong defensive showing this evening. The D-pairs should be the same as the last couple of games, those being:

Ryan Suter-Jonas Brodin

Jared Spurgeon-Brett Clark

Justin Falk-Tom Gilbert

During this last 3 game road trip the Wild’s defense corps had 3rd period break downs in each game. Against Calgary they allowed 3 goals in the final period, against Edmonton they gave up 2 and in the ugly loss to San Jose they surrendered 3. Those are some very, very un-Wild like numbers. The boys from St. Paul have had a couple of days off to rest and practice before facing the Flames on home ice where they are an impressive 13-6-2 so far this season. One other important statistic for the Wild and Niklas Backstrom is, they are 21-2-4 all time in games after one in which Backstrom was yanked. Against the Sharks Thursday he was pulled after surrendering 5 goals through 4+ minutes of the 3rd period. The Wild D will have to put in a full 60 minutes effort tonight against a Flames squad looking to play the spoiler role. Defensively Minnesota will need to move the puck out of the zone quickly and efficiently, not allowing the Flames to get repeated shots and rebound opportunities.

Offensively Minnesota has been shut out four times this month and scored a total of 18 goals in the other 6 contests, 5 of those goals coming against Calgary last Monday. The Wilds offensive lines should look the same as last game. Mike Rupp skated in practice Saturday but is not expected to be in the lineup tonight along with Zenon Konopka who remains out with a broken foot. The lines for tonight appear to be:

Mikko Koivu-Zach Parise-Charlie Coyle

Matt Cullen-Devin Setoguchi-Jason Zucker

Kyle Brodziak-Pierre-Marc Bouchard-Jason Pominville

Torrey Mitchell-Cal Clutterbuck-Mikael Granlund

These are the same lines that produced 9 goals in the first two games of the last road trip against the Flames and Oilers. Puck control and a heavy forecheck are musts tonight. The top line needs to be clicking against the Flames defense, over the last three games they have contributed just 3 goals and 1 assist. Luckily for Minnesota new acquired Jason Pominville and the newly minted third line have contributed 6 goals and 4 assists on the 3 game road trip. They will need to stay hot against Calgary tonight and hope the 1st and 2nd lines contribute as well. Speaking of the 2nd line, since Matt Cullen returned to the lineup after missing 6 games with an injury, that trio has contributed just a pair of assists. The Wild must have some point production our of this line if they expect to remain in the playoff hunt. Realistically Minnesota should be looking ending up in 5th to 7th position at the end of the regular season. I hope they don’t end up in the 8th slot and have to face the juggernaut that is the Chicago Blackhawks in the first round of the playoffs.

A couple of keys to victory for the Wild tonight are going to be the power play and the penalty kill. The Flames and Wild are ranked 14th and 15th in the NHL with power plays scoring 18.3% and 19.0% respectively. On the penalty kill the Wild have a success rate of 82.0% to the Flames 81.2%. Minnesota has to stay out of the box, avoiding lazy penalties and capitalize on their power play opportunities. Whoever wins the special teams battle will win tonight’s game. Another area the Wild must dominate is the faceoff dot. If they can gain and keep control of the puck especially right off the faceoffs, it should help their shots on goal total and defensive zone clears. Niklas Backstrom (22-13-3) will start in net tonight facing Miikka Kiprusoff (8-13-2) or Joey MacDonald (7-7-1). Backstrom, as I mentioned earlier, is a monster in games after ones in which he has been pulled including a 3-0 record in those situations this season. One of the biggest keys to this game is a fast start for Minnesota. Scoring the first goal, forcing the Flames to play from behind, will keep the pressure on Calgary and allow the Wild to play the game on their terms. Heading into tonight’s action the Wild are in fairly good shape on the injury from missing only 1 scorer (Heatley) and 2 fourth liners (Rupp, Konopka). They have 8 healthy defensemen with Prosser and Falk the likely scratches. All the pieces are in place, it’s now time to execute and extinguish the Flames. In the tight Western Conference the Wild must win 3 of these last four games, anything less and their Stanley Cup Playoff hopes are in danger. GonePuckWild.com will be with you as the intensity builds to the end of season climax. It’s going to be a sprint to the finish for your Minnesota Wild as they try to break their playoff drought. I’ll be back after tonights game with a recap and analysis. Until then this is Scott Drain confidently shouting, “LET’S GO WILD!!!”

Minnesota Wild Beat Calgary Flames – Take Over 6th In West

Scott Drain — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 06:37:35 +0000

Apr 9, 2013; St. Paul, MN, USA; Minnesota Wild forward Jason Pominville (29) looks on during the second period against the Chicago Blackhawks at the Xcel Energy Center. The Blackhawks defeated the Wild 1-0. Mandatory Credit: Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports

The Minnesota Wild faced the Calgary Flames at the Scotiabank Saddle Dome Monday night and survived taking a 4-3 win. The game got close at the end but started with Minnesota looking like they expected to win. The Wild needed this win and two goals by Jason Pominville, an early goal by Captain Mikko Koivu and one from Pierre-Marc Bouchard paved the way to victory. Three different lines scored goals tonight for Minnesota. The two points are huge for the Wild who face the Edmonton Oilers Tuesday at Rexall Place. The win let’s Minnesota keep pace with Vancouver who leads the Northwest Division with 54 points five up on the Wild. For the second game in a row the Wild scored first, on Koivu’s goal just 2:17 in. Minnesota put the Flames back on their heels with that goal forcing the Flames to play from behind all night long. The Flames did make the game close in the end scoring a desperation goal with 39 seconds to play with goal tender Joey MacDonald pulled. Minnesota goalie Niklas Backstrom pulled out the victory, his 21st of the season, tying him with Fleury of the Penguins for the NHL lead. Backstrom turned away 20 of 23 shots and will probably get the start in net Tuesday in Edmonton where his record is spectacular. The Wild’s defense played a good game, not a great one, with 3 goals by the lowly Flames in the third period. The best thing about tonight is the 2 points the Wild earned, allowing them to jump ahead of St. Louis into 6th in the Western Conference standings.

Matt Cullen returned to the Wild lineup and his presence was clearly felt. He returned to center a line with Devin Setoguchi and Jason Zucker. Wild Head Coach Mike Yeo said of the center’s return, ” Cullen didn’t look like he missed any time.” “It’s huge adding a veteran presence like that.” Cullen’s stat line for the night read 1 assist, 1 shot on goal, +2 for the game in 14:02 of ice time. A very nice return to action indeed. Another return to action was Charlie Coyle‘s. After being wrongly ejected from Saturday night’s game against Columbus after just 17 seconds of action Coyle’s presence was clearly a boost to the top line. With him occupying time and space in front of the Calgary goal he allowed his line mates space to work with the puck. Tt was a rebound of his shot that Koivu corralled and scored with. The Wild’s third line also looked a bit different with Kyle Brodziak, Jason Pominville and Pierre-Marc Bouchard as a line. I’d have to say that little experiment worked rather well with Pominville scoring 2, Bouchard with a goal and Brodziak adding 3 shots on goal along with an outstanding defensive effort all night long. The Wild held a 2-0 lead heading into the 3rd period with the goals by Koivu and Pominville, but gave up a goal to Calgary’s Jiri Hudler just 3:42 in, to see that lead halved. Bouchard struck for the Wild just 11 seconds later and Pominville restored the two goal margin 1:13 later with his second of the night. The quick reply to the Flames’ first goal is something the Wild have been lacking over the last 7 games. The Wild showed a battle level and intensity against Calgary that has been missing from other games lately. After the game Pominville said, “It’s nice to get rewarded like that. Most important thing is we payed a 200 foot game and got rewarded.”

Calgary made the game close on a pair of goals in the latter stages of the third period, but did not pose much of a threat to the Wild for most of the game. The Flames are a team that is playing out the string for the most part. They got a look at one bright prospect, as former St. Cloud State University standout Ben Hanowski scored a goal in his first NHL game. Hanowski put a rebound by Backstrom for the 2nd Calgary goal 11:19 into the final period. With the Flames out of the playoff picture, Hanowski should see some significant ice time the rest of the season. The final goal by the Flames’ came with less than a minute to play, when a pass found Mike Cammmalleri alone on the doorstep for an easy tap in. All in all a good night for the boys from Minnesota with 2 points gained and no serious injuries suffered, unless you count the chipped tooth and 5 stitches to the tongue Charlie Coyle suffered from a high stick late in the 2nd period. For once the infraction was called and the Wild enjoyed a 4 minute power play opportunity. Four goals from three lines and good defense that’s what the Wild need each game for the rest of the regular season. It’s win and you’re in time for Minnesota, take care of your games and the Stanley Cup Playoffs await.

The Wild have another game Tuesday in Edmonton but should be able to get a good night’s rest with just a 25 minute flight from Calgary to Edmonton. I’ll be back Tuesday morning with a look at that match up. Until then Wild fans GonePuckWild.com will continue to provide the Wild news and information you need. This is Scott Drain sleepily chanting, “Let’s Go Wild!”

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Matt Cullen back in the lineup, plays two way hockey. Catalyst on the second line. Seto and Bouchard’s production nosedived after Cullen’s injury. Cullen will center Setoguchi and Zucker on 2nd line. 3rd line Brodziak, Pominville and Bouchard, Top liine Koivu, Coyle, and Parise 4th line Clutterbuck, Mitchell, and Rupp

Ben Hanowski in lineup for Calgary, SCSU Husky Captain. From the Frozen Four to the NHL in 4 days. 1sr NHL game.

Out of the lineup tonight as healthy scratches are forward Mikael Granlund, and defensemen Justin Falk and Nate Prosser. Zenon Konopka has a lower-body injury and didn’t travel with the team. Josh Harding is still on Injured Reserve as he receives treatment for multiple sclerosis.