Havlat’s late 3rd period goal snaps Colorado’s 6-game winning streak

As the old saying goes, “all good things must come to an end” which is one way of describing the fact that just 54 games into the season the Wild are done with their regular season series against the Colorado Avalanche.  It seems strange to think that the Wild will have played the Avalanche six times.  The positive of this is the Wild can then focus itself on its remaining Northwest Division games against the Calgary Flames (4 games left) and the abysmal Edmonton Oilers (4 games left) as well as just two more games against the Canucks.  Most of these remaining games will be played after the Olympic break so it should make for a very intense stretch to the end of the regular season.  Needless to say, the Wild must do well in these games if it wants to keep its fleeting playoff hopes alive.

Despite the fact the Avalanche find themselves still at the top of the Northwest Division which is currently a tie between Col0rado and the Vancouver Canucks as they both have 66 points.  Minnesota has played well against the Avalanche, winning 4 out of the 5 games thus far.  It seems strange that the Colorado Avalanche have been able to surprise so many other teams across the league but struggle against the Wild.  The Wild are feeling pretty confident after beating the Red Wings at home, 5-2.  Can the Wild finish their season series by going 5-for-6 against the Avalanche or will Colorado make sure they leave a sour taste after being victorious in their last two games against the State of Hockey?

For some reason that’s beyond me, the game that should be waiting for me on the DVR isn’t playing.  While I watched the game in real-time last night, it’s always nice to go back and watch it.  Since I can’t re-watch the game, I figure it’s as good of time as any to visit the print media.  Considering that the Wild were playing in Denver, nothing is more “fun” than reading the post-game rantings of Adrian Dater of the Denver Post.  Thankfully, Dater won’t disappoint you if you’re looking for one of those “Wild are ruining hockey” rants that you’ve become used to over the years.  There are so many good nuggets of ridiculousness in this one small game recap, that they each deserve their time in the limelight.

From Dater himself:

The Minnesota Wild — the NHL’s version of Ambien on ice — puts everybody to sleep with its style of play.

My personal favorite comes from Avalanche winger Chris Stewart:

They always seem to play a boring trap game.  They just want to keep it close and hope you make a mistake and capitalize. We let that happen tonight.

Then just in case you haven’t gotten enough delusional ramblings from the Avalanche, rookie Matt Duchene chimed in his less than two-cents worth:

They’re probably the hardest team in the league to play against, just because all they do is play ‘D’. It seems like they don’t even try to go on the offense at all. They just try to force us into mistakes, and that’s the way they score.

Let’s start with Dater’s opening comment.  I know it’s much, much easier to fall back on the old, stereotypical comments, but seriously could you at least try to be a bit more original?  Also, one has to wonder if you somehow didn’t get the memo letting you know that the Wild have a new coach and a new style of play.  While the Wild don’t have quite the right mix of skill and talent to fully pull it off, it’s not the same Wild team that Dater refuses to let go of.  This might be a bit petty of me, but I have to wonder if Dater missed the fact that his team wasn’t exactly awe-inspiring last night.   It was the Avalanche that should have been rearing to go, considering they’d been off since Sunday.  The fault for lack of excitement should be laid at the feet of the home team, not the team that played the night before against Detroit.

As for Stewart’s comments, I think he’s been reading too many of Dater’s columns in his short NHL career since he was drafted in 2006.  If I were you Chris, I might re-watch last night’s game tape before making such comments.  It wasn’t the team wearing white clogging up the neutral zone or standing up the opposition at the blue line.  As for “boring” Chris, it was your team that was well-rested and should have been the one dictating the tempo of the game.  The Wild weren’t going to come out firing on all cylinders, and it is the fault of you and your teammates for not taking advantage of the situation.  It’s also the fault of you and your team that the Vancouver Canucks are now ahead of you in the standings.

As for you Matt Duchene, please heed the advice issued towards Chris Stewart.

I’ll admit, it was a slow game.  However it was slow on the part of both teams.  I was expecting the Avalanche to come out and show us why they were currently sitting on top of the Northwest Division, however that was not the case.  The Avalanche were very, very fortunate that the Wild failed on all of their five power-play chances.  Of course if the Wild would have won scoring several power-play goals, I’m sure we would have heard something in the realm of “questionable officiating” coming from Dater, et al.

If there was a nightly award for a player giving his all under less-than-ideal situations, it would go to Wild goaltender Josh Harding. If you remember, he tweaked his hip during last week’s tilt against Detroit.  Wednesday night against Detroit he had some saves that stretched him out yet again.  Under normal circumstances, Niklas Backstrom would have played in Denver, however Backstrom was sidelined with back spasms.  Because of those spasms, the Wild called up Wade Dubielewicz from Houston.  While call up’s often don’t cause concern, in the case of Dubielewicz, while he made it to Denver he missed all of warm-ups and only made it to the lockerroom a mere 13 minutes prior to the puck drop.  In the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Harding mentions it was a sense of duty to not put his back-up in that situation as for why he didn’t pull himself.  With everyone aware of the situation, it was those last few minutes of the third period, that you truly saw a team effort coming from the Wild.  They did everything they possibly could to protect their goalie and make things easier for him.

Wild Notes:

~ Wild lineup tonight is as follows: Mikko Koivu, Martin Havlat, Antti Miettinen, Andrew Brunette, Owen Nolan, Eric Belanger, James Sheppard, Robbie Earl, Andrew Ebbett, Kyle Brodziak, Guillaume Latendresse, Cal Clutterbuck, Nick Schultz, Kim Johnsson, Greg Zanon, Shane Hnidy, Marek Zidlicky and Brent Burns.  Wade Dubielewicz backed up Josh Harding.  John Scott and Derek Boogaard were healthy scratches.  While Niklas Backstrom was out with back spasms and Clayton Stoner is still struggling with groin issues.  Chuck Kobasew has just started to skate again after straining his ACL/MCL in his knee, and Pierre-Marc Bouchard is still suffering from post-concussion symptoms.

~ The 3 Stars of the Game were: 1st Star Josh Harding, 2nd Star Martin Havlat, 3rd Star Craig Anderson

Houston Aeros Report:

Houston 2, Chicago 5

The Aeros found themselves under siege early at the always hostile Allstate Arena in Rosemount, Illinois tonight.  The speedy Wolves were moving well and causing the Aeros to get caught chasing them all over the ice and J.P. Testwuide would be called for interference and it would be a costly mistake.  Chicago would move the puck well on the man advantage before Jason Krog tapped in a rebound off a Tim Stapleton shot to give the Wolves a 1-0 lead.  A few minutes later Chicago would add to its lead as Paul Postma would catch the Aeros in a line change and deliver a long stretch pass to Stapleton who moved in all alone and beat Wade Dubielewicz by roofing a backhander to extend the Wolves’ lead to 2-0.  The Aeros would answer back with less than 5 minutes left in the period as Colton Gillies would work hard near the Chicago crease to chip a puck by a sprawling Kari Lehtonen to cut the Wolves’ lead in half going into the 2nd period.  In the 2nd the Aeros tried to get their energy going as Jaime Sifers dropped the gloves against Spencer Machacek.  Sifers was really throwing punches although Machacek was biding his time staying out of range as the Aeros blueliner wore himself out before throwing a couple of wild hook like punches which caused him to grapple and the officials would step in to break it up.  Chicago would start to assert its superior scoring depth as their very dangerous top line of former Gopher Johnny Pohl found AHL scoring machine Bret Sterling open in the slot and he rifled a shot by Dubielewicz to lift the Wolves to a 3-1 lead.  Houston was getting frustrated in this game, and in the 3rd period it would show once again as the Aeros’ Justin Falk tried to goad the Wolves into a cheap penalty after roughing up Riley Holzapfel but he had no takers and would earn an extra minor for his trouble.  The Wolves would make the Aeros pay on the 4:00 power play, as former Colorado College star Joey Crabb would take a pass off the rush and beat Dubielewicz with a wicked wrister underneath the arm, stick side to extend the Chicago lead to three.  The Aeros attempted to earn back some pride when the top line of Danny Irmen, Chad Rau and Jean-Michel Daoust would cycle the puck well before Rau dished a pass to Daoust who pulled the trigger on a quick snap shot from just underneath the right faceoff circle to cut the Wolves’ lead to two, 4-2.  It wasn’t meant to be as the Aeros showing some of the desperation of their season would pull Dubielewicz just prior to the 15:00 mark of the 3rd hoping to close it to a one-goal game but instead it was the Wolves mucking up the play in the neutral zone and Sterling buried the empty netter to seal a 5-2 victory.  The goal was just Colton Gillies’ 3rd of the season.