Apr 26, 2014; Denver, CO, USA; Minnesota Wild left wing Dany Healtey (15) and Colorado Avalanche goalie Semyon Varlamov (1) watch the puck fly by during the second period in game five of the first round of the 2014 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Pepsi Center. Mandatory Credit: Chris Humphreys-USA TODAY Sports
The Minnesota Wild have one mission. Win tonight’s game. Outside of that nothing else matters. Win tonight and game 7 awaits in Denver. A loss tonight and the season is over and the Colorado Avalanche move on to the next round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Tonight the Wild need a complete team effort and a couple of heroes. This has been a season of ups and downs for the Minnesota Wild but every time they were counted out the team found a way to persevere and win when they needed it most. Each time a different player or group of players stepped up and got the job done. Tonight is another one of those biggest games the Wild must find a way to win. So far this series the home team has won every game, that’s a trend that has to continue at the Xcel Energy Center tonight for your Minnesota Wild.
The forward lines for tonight will remain the same and are:
Zach Parise – Mikael Granlund–Jason Pominville
Matt Moulson – Mikko Koivu – Charlie Coyle
Nino Niederreiter – Erik Haula – Justin Fontaine
Cody McCormick – Kyle Brodziak – Dany Heatley
Defensively the pairs are the same as well with:
Ryan Suter – Jonas Brodin
Jared Spurgeon – Marco Scandella
Nate Prosser – Clayton Stoner
In goal once again will be Darcy Kuemper with his 1.40 goals against average and a .940 save percentage so far this post season. He’ll need to come up big again tonight for the Wild to head to game 7. I’ll be back after the action with a recap and some analysis. Until next time this is Scott Drain shouting proudly, LET’S GO WILD – BEAT THE AVS – LET’S GO WILD!!