Mar 27, 2013; Saint Paul, MN, USA; Minnesota Wild forward Mikko Koivu (9) scores the game winning goal in overtime against the Phoenix Coyotes at the Xcel Energy Center. The Wild defeat the Coyotes 4-3 in overtime. Mandatory Credit: Marilyn Indahl-USA TODAY Sports

The  Minnesota Wild just keep on winning.  Tonight Minnesota beat the Phoenix Coyotes in OT to run their winning streak to 7 games.  It’s been a wild ride for the boys from St. Paul.  It seems that every game a different player, a different line, a different way is found to win and keep picking up points.  With tonight’s victory the Wild are once again the leader in the Northwest Division with 42 points.  While they are tied with Vancouver in points, they have the division lead and the third spot in the Western Conference standings based on regulation and overtime wins (ROW) with 17 total.  This wasn’t the prettiest win of the year but it was a win and that’s what counts.  There are no style points in the NHL.  Minnesota Captain Mikko Koivu summed it up after the game saying, “Good teams find ways to win and we did.”  Mikko was outstanding late in the game and the overtime session.  He had an assist on Ryan Suter‘s game tying goal with 55 seconds left in the 3rd period and scored the game winner 2:43 into overtime.  His stats for the game read 1 goal, 1 assist, 4 shots, +2 with no penalties in 23:39 of ice time.  It was just another day at the office for the Wild’s undisputed leader on and off the ice.  Minnesota’s top line showed why they are #1, the top defensive pairing showed why they are #1.  In the words of Wild Head Coach Mike Yeo after the game, “It’s a pretty simple story. We had a few individuals who said we’re not going to lose this game tonight.”  Later he added “I just don’t think we played a very good game tonight from top to bottom, but we found a way to win.”  Win, that’s what the Wild did tonight. When things looked bleak late in the 3rd period, after they coughed up a 2 goal lead and found them selves trailing with 1 minute left on the clock, they dug deep and found a way to win. That’s the difference between this season’s Minnesota Wild and the Minnesota Wild of seasons past.  Some team’s found ways to win and other’s didn’t.  The 2002-03 squad found ways to win as they became the most successful Wild team to date.  Other teams in other years found ways to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.  Tonight the Wild were winners and everybody loves a winner, especially the 19,076 fans in attendance at the Xcel Energy Center.  The Wild are hot right now and they plan to stay hot as they head back to Dallas to face the Stars for the second time in a week.  This past Monday the Wild won in Dallas for the first time in 10 years.  They will need to be firing on all cylinders and stay hot as they look to repeat that performance Friday night.

The Wild came out a little flat tonight as the puck dropped at 8pm.  Maybe the guys thought this would be an easy task to beat the Coyotes who are tied for 12th in the Western Conference standings.  Phoenix handed the Wild an opportunity right off the bat when Martin Hanzal took a tripping penalty just 30 seconds into the 1st period.  After all Minnesota has scored a power play goal in 9 of their past 11 games many of those coming a critical junctures of those contests.  No power play goal was to be had here or during any of the 4 power play opportunities the Wild had Wednesday night.  Much of the 1st period was a rather lackluster effort by both teams.  The Wild would eventually break through when the 4th line of Torrey Mitchell, Mike Rupp and Zenon Konopka would score at the 15:15 mark.  Rupp fired off a good shot that Coyotes net minder Jason Labarbera couldn’t corral.  The puck landed on the tape of Mitchell who came charging down the slot and snapped the rebound home to put the home team up by 1.  That was the only goal of the 1st period by wither team.  With 1 period in the books the Wild led 1-0 and in shots on goal 10-8.

The Wild would go up 2-0 5:29 into the second period when Phoenix goalie Labarbera gift wrapped an opportunity for Matt Cullen.  While playing the puck behind his own net the Coyote goalie tried to send a pass up ice through the slot.  BAD IDEA!  The WIld’s Cullen knocked the puck out of the air, gathered it in when it hit the ice and flipped it into a wide open net before Labarbera or any other Coyotes could react.  At this point is looked as though the Wild were on their way to an easy win on home ice with a sell put crowd roaring their approval.  Not so fast Minnesota Wild fans.  A hungry group of Coyotes were waiting for their turn to pounce on any chances the Wild would provide.  Phoenix was looking for the chance to seize momentum at the first opportunity.  Zenon Konopka and Kyle Chipchura dropped the gloves and engaged in a lengthy fight that started near the Wild’s blue line continued over the red line along the boards, then worked it’s way past the Coyotes blue line down the half wall into the corner and finally wound up by the Phoenix goal. It’s amazing how long Konopka can stretch out a fight, wearing down his opponent with his endurance. That tilt seemed to energize both benches.  It was Phoenix who capitalized first as they cut the Wild’s lead in half with the first of two goals they would score in just 3 minutes and 15 seconds to even the score at 2 goals apiece.   Rob Klinkhammer would score the first for the ‘Yotes  at the 7:13 mark of the period.  Keith Yandle would tie the score soon after quieting the noisy Xcel Energy Center crowd.  This wasn’t how the game was supposed to go, the Wild were supposed to keep rolling and scoring. The script didn’t call for a tie game going into the third period.  This just wasn’t right.  Phoenix was spending a lot of time in the offensive zone while the Wild’s dump ins were going the other direction quickly and all to often without a shot on goal.

Just 1:52 had elapsed in the 3rd period when Michael Stone scored to give the Coyotes their first lead of the game and the potential game winner.  The Wild seemed to be struggling throughout the night with inconsistent play, a lack of focus and little attention to detail.  Those things have been key in building this 6-game win streak that was now in jeopardy.  Not all the Wild were having an off night and even those who were had stretches of good play.  One luxury Minnesota has this year is three solid scoring lines who can strike on any shift at any time. Some of the guys having a good night included Zach Parise who had 7 shots on goal and an assist on the night, Ryan Suter who put 6 shots on net and Captain Koivu.

The streak appeared to be headed toward a conclusion and two points headed to Phoenix with less than a minute to play and Niklas Backstrom on the bench for an extra skater.  That’s when Zach Parise went to work battling for the puck behind the Phoenix goal and dishing it to Koivu.  The Wild captain sent the puck to D-man Jared Spurgeon on the point who one-timed it to Suter.  Suter skated in toward goalie Labarbera snapping off a shot that beat the Coyote’s goalie high on the right side tying the game at 3 goals a side and sending the game into OT.  Through three periods the Wild out shot the Coyotes  32 to 27 with the best shot yet to come.

Phoenix quickly went a man down in the overtime session when Antoine Vermette took a dumb penalty just 35 seconds into OT.  He cross checked Wild’s Jared Spurgeon in the low back knocking the diminutive D-man awkwardly into the boards face first.  Luckily Spurgeon was not seriously injured and shook off the dangerous hit, staying in the game as Phoenix went a man down.  The Coyotes managed to kill the 2 minutes of 4 on 3 hockey and a shootout was appearing on the horizon.  Once again though Zach Parise went to work dishing a slick pass to Captain Koivu who deked the Coyote defenders and beat Labarbera for the game winner.  The streak is intact at 7 games and Minnesota stole two points from the Coyotes.  After the game Wild winger Cal Clutterbuck echoed the sentiments of Wild coaches and players saying, “I don’t think we were near good enough tonight.” “We’ve got to push the pace from the drop of the puck.”  Good enough or not the Minnesota Wild won their 7th straight game tonight, took over the divisional lead, climbed into third in the tight Western Conference and scored 4 or more goals for the 7th time this month. During this 7 game win streak the Wild have averaged 4.42 goals scored, given up an average of 2.42 goals, gone 6 for 21 on the power play (28.6%), killed off 17 of 22 penalties (77.2%) and goal tender Backstrom has posted a .924 save percentage.  Next up, the Dallas Stars for the second time this week.  It’s a lot of fun to watch the Minnesota Wild and cover them for GonePuckWild.com, I’ll be back Friday morning with the Wild vs Stars game preview. Until then, this is Scott Drain proudly saying, LET’S GO WILD!!

Feb. 28, 2013; Glendale, AZ, USA; Minnesota Wild goalie Niklas Backstrom (32) makes a save during the first period against the Phoenix Coyotes at Jobing.com Arena. Mandatory Credit: Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports

The Minnesota Wild are looking to extend their 6 game winning streak as the face the Phoenix Coyotes at the Xcel Energy Center this evening.  Right now the Wild are the hottest team in the Western Conference , winning 6 in a row and going 8-2 in their last 1o games.  Minnesota hasn’t lost consecutive games since February 12th and 14th!  They are 2nd in the Northwest Division with 40 points and a 19-10-2 record.  Vancouver leads the division with 42 points, but they have played 2 more games than the Wild.  While they are 2 points back of the Canucks in points, the Wild are pulling away from the rest of the teams in the Northwest Division.  Their leads over Calgary, Edmonton and Colorado have grown to 9, 12, and 14 points respectively.  When was the last time you could say that about our Wild! Minnesota is not just winning games by close margins.  During the current win streak they have outscored opponents 38 to 23 and the winning margin has been 2 or more goals each game.  Those are both team records.  The scoring has been spread out as well.  In their most recent win in Dallas 11 Wild players registered a point of more and 13 of 18 skaters were a +1 or better.  Two Minnesota players, defensemen Jared Spurgeon and  Clayton Stoner set team high marks going +5 on the evening.

Workhorse goalie Niklas Backstrom will be in net again tonight. During the win streak the Wild’s goal tending and defense have been spectacular.  Backstrom was named the NHL’s number 2 star of the week for the week ending March 24th.  In three starts against Vancouver, Detroit and San Jose he was, of course, 3-0.  He had 1 shut out while posting a goals against average of 1.00 and a .972 save percentage.  Backstrom stopped 104 of the 107 shots he faced, 35 of 36 against Vancouver, 36 of 38 against Detroit and all 33 versus San Jose.   The San Jose game was his first shut out of the season and the 27th of his career.  Backy, as teammates call him, is 2nd in the NHL in wins with 17, one victory behind Marc-Andre Fleury of the Pittsburgh Penguins.  His 7 losses are 9th in the NHL.  The unflappable Backstrom ranks 9th in games played with 26, 12th in games started with 25 while his 1,514:39 in total time on the ice rank 10th overall.  Not too shabby for a guy who didn’t break into the ranks of NHL goal tenders until the 2006-07 season at the age of 27.  How he stayed off of the radar of the Wild and 29 other NHL teams is one of the great mysteries in hockey.  One that ranks up there with Pavel Datsyuk not being drafted until the 171st overall pick in the 1998 draft and Brett Hull not being taken until the 4th round and the 117th pick in 1984.  Backstrom is not unknown any more,  the only mystery for the other 29 teams in the league is how to get puck past him often enough to win a game.

Phoenix comes to St. Paul in the midst of a 6 game losing streak during which they have been outscored 16 to 5. They have a 13-15-4 record overall and have slipped into last place in the Pacific Diviosion in the Western Conference.  Coyotes net minder Mike Smith is 11-10-3 sporting a 2.83 goals against average and a pedestrian save % of .901, even when he’s having a good night stopping shots, his team mates are giving him very little in the way of goal support. Over Phoenix’s 12 games so far in the month of March they have scored just 23 goals and have been shut out 4 times.  That’s a 1.92 goals for on average.  In that same span they have allowed 35 goals, an average of 2.92 per game, it’s tough to win games with that kind of goal differential.

Minnesota has no such problems right now.  Head Coach Mike Yeo has had the luxury of rolling line after line in the moth of March.  The Wild have scored 42 goals this month while surrendering just 29 that works out to averages of 3.50 per game  for and 2.42 against. Those are much more favorable numbers and indicative of a team gearing up for a playoff run.  The scoring is coming from all of the Wild’s forward lines and the defensive pairs as well.  Ten Wild players have scored 9 or more points through 31 games this season.  At the top of that list are Mikko Koivu 28 points (8 g, 20 a), Zach Parise 27 pts. (14g, 13a), Ryan Suter 26 pts.(2 g, 24 a), Matt Cullen 22 pts.(5 g 17 a), Devin Setoguchi 21 pts. (11 g, 10 a),  Dany Heatley (9 g, 9 a), Pierre-Marc Bouchard 14 pts. (4 g, 10 a),  Jared Spurgeon 14 pts. (4 g, 7 a) Tom Gilbert 9 pts.(3 g, 6 a), and Kyle Brodziak 9 pts. (6 g, 3 a).  While Wild players are racking up goals and assists they are being responsible in the defensive end as well.  Minnesota has 14 players with a positive +/-rating while 9  players have a negative +/- rating.  That gives Minnesota an overall rating of +13 so far in this truncated season.

Tonight is the third and final meeting between the Wild and Coyotes with the two splitting a pair of games at Jobing.com arena.  Both games were decided by a single goal with Phoenix taking the first on February 4th by a 2-1 final score and the Wild winning the second 4-3 on February 28th.  Minnesota will be facing a dangerous, hungry Coyotes squad when they take the ice tonight.  Look for Phoenix to come out hard and fast, trying to grab a quick lead. Depending on the line up Dave Tippett sends out tonight Zenon Konopka and Mike Rupp could have their hands full.  The Coyotes have 4 players with 27 or more penalty minutes (PIM), Paul Bissonnette, Derek Morris, Keith Yandle and Kyle Chipchura.  With the trouble the Coyotes have had finding the back of the net I’d expect them to be looking for a couple of greasy goals scored by crashing the net or looking for deflections out front on shots from the top of the circles or closer.

The Wild need to continue to come out swinging and match Phoenix’s toughness and grind it out style of play.  The team that capitalizes the most on their power play chances will be the winner tonight.  The Wild’s penalty kill is ranked 6th in the league at 84.6 % while Phoenix is 13th at 82.0 %.  The Wild have improved their scoring with the man advantage throughout the season and now sit in 13th position with an 18.5 % success rate. The Coyotes are worse at just 15.5 %.  Minnesota’s ability to win face offs has allowed them to control the puck and dictate play much better than in past seasons.  This will be an interesting area to watch tonight as both teams are excellent in the face off circle.  The Wild and Coyotes are tied for second in the NHL in face off efficiency at 52.8 %.  The Wild will need to shoot the puck when they get the chance.  They have been doing better as the season has progressed, climbing up to 20th with 28.3 shots on average.  Phoenix ranks substantially higher, averaging nearly 31 shots on goal per game.

Looking at the forward lines for tonight’s game, I don’t see Caoch Yeo making any changes. Why mess with success.  The Wild have been getting scoring from the top line of Mikko Koivu, Zach Parise, and young Charlie Coyle.  The secondary scoring Minnesota has lacked for so long is now coming in bunches from the line of Matt Cullen, Devin Setoguchi, and Pierre-Marc Bouchard.  The next line of Dany Heatley, Cal Clutterbuck and Kyle Brodziak may see the intoduction of Jake Dowell if Clutterbuck can’t go tonight.  Clutterbuck injured his right leg in the Dallas game on Monday, had to be helped off the ice, but returned in time to set up Brodziak’s short handed game winning goal.  Dowell watched Monday’s action from the press box, he would be a good fit on the 3rd and 4th lines with his gritty, grinding style of play.  The 4th line of Konopka, Rupp and Mitchell can handle any rough stuff the desert dogs want to try.

The defensive pairings should remain unchanged with one of the best pairings in the NHL leading the way.  Ryan Suter and Jonas Brodin could be in the mix for post season hardware.  With an injury to the Penguin’s Kris Letang, Suter is a leading candidate for the Norris trophy.  Brodin has thrived with Suter and plays at a level well beyond his 19 years and rookie status.  He is getting some serious Calder trophy consideration.  The pair of Jared Spurgeon and Clayton Stoner totaled 4 assists and each was a +5 last game, an outstanding performance.  The third pair of Tom Gilbert and Justin Falk have been solid as well.  I see Nate Prosser as the healthy scratch once again.

Tonight’s game is a late start for a Wild home game with puck drop slated for 8pm Minnesota time (CST).  GonePuckWild.com will be back after the action with a full recap and analysis.  The Wild are taking things one game at a time, not overlooking any opponents, as the quest for the post season continues.  Until late tonight this is Scott Drain yelling repeatedly “LET’S GO WILD!!”