OK Wild fans I’m going to just cover the Wild vs Kings in this blog and put up a reaction to the last 3 games in another tomorrow.
Last night the up and coming LA Kings (5-2-0) came to town to face the consistently inconsistent Minnesota Wild (3-3-1). After splitting 2 games of their first road trip of the season the Wild were lucky to come home with 2 points. Minnesota committed 16 penalties combined and needed to turn it around if they expected to beat LA.
In the first period the both teams came out physical. LA loves to create their style of offense by shooting the puck and crashing the net which they were able to do multiple times in the first but unable to get anything past Backstrom.
6 minutes into the first John Madden scored his second of the season and 1st of the game on a Clayton stoner assist (1). Not long after the Madden goal Nick Schultz took a set up by Mikko Koivu giving the Wild a 2-0 lead assisted by Koivu (7) and Brent Burns (3). With those 2 goals the Wild scored twice on their first 4 shots of the game.
The Wild got a chance to get their league leading power play on the ice 12 minutes into the period. By now everyone knows how well the PP has gone but they were unable to get anything clicking. Unable to control the zone twice the Wild gave up the short handed opportunities but the Kings were unable to score.
Mikko Koivu was called for a tripping call with about 3 minutes left of the first and Kings Center Jerret Stoll was able to cut the lead going into the 2nd period 2-1. Throughout the first period the Wild committed 4 penalties to the Kings 2 and LA outshot the Wild 10-8.
Coming into the second period both team were playing 4on4 when the Kings went to the box giving the Wild a chance on the PP only to have Latendress call for hooking 7 seconds in to the penalty. The Wild couldn't get anything going on the 4on4 and 5on5 unable to get a shot on goal till over 7 minutes into the period.
Minnesota got a big chance to increase the lead when LA’s Captain Dustin Brown was called for a game misconduct for a hit to the head of Antti Miettinen. Looking at the replay multiple times I’m still not positive if he made contact to the head of Miettinen but with how fast the game goes the refs made the right call. They have to protect the players after the Matt Cook hit on Marc Savard. Savard got a concussion on the play and missed a lot of game time for the Bruins.
With the Dustin Brown penalty the Wild were given 4 minutes on the power play. The once potent Wild Power play looked confused along with no sense of urgency at all. Throughout the PP the Kings were able to step into passes and into the plays clearing the puck out of the zone not giving the Minnesota a chance to set up and get going.
Even though Minnesota couldn’t get anything going the hockey gods must have been smiling on them. Minnesota’s 5th penalty of the game the Kings missed the open net 3 times, it wasn’t till Captain Koivu committed his 2nd penalty of the game that Anze Kopitar was able to tie the game up at 2-2. At the end of the 2nd Minnesota had already committed 7 penalties, were outshot 13-7, and the game was tied 2-2.
In the 3rd period both teams played physical and fast. Kings Defenseman Jack Johnson was call for a tripping minor but yet again the Wild were unable to take advantage and get the go ahead goal. The third period ended with that being the highlight of the period. The Wild did not commit any penalties in the third but were outshot 8-5 by the Kings and headed to overtime.
In overtime neither team was able to get much going. Ryan Smyth was the closest to ending the game when he ripped a shot on goal that bounced off Backstrom and towards the goal. Lucky for the Wild Marek Zidlicky was ther to stop the puck and keep the Kings from getting the win. Overtime ended with the score still 2-2 headed to the shoot out.
The shootout went as followed:
Rd 1, LA Kopitar (5 hole) score, MN Koivu (backhand) score. 1-1
Rd 2, LA Johnson Denied, MN Cullen (forehand) score. 2-1 Wild
Rd 3, LA Stoll (forehand) score, MN Zidlicky missed. 2-2
Rd 4, LA Williams Denied, MN Burns missed. 2-2
Rd 5 LA Handzus (forehand) score, MN Miettinen denied. LA wins SO 3-2
Throughout the game the Wild were unable to get anything going on a consistent basis. Committing too many penalties again was the killer for the team and main reason why the Wild lost going 2-7 on the penalty kill. The First 2 lines didn't do much to contribute to the game, it is hard to get your best players on the ice when they don’t play on the PK and just sit and watch for a third of the game.
The Wild need to do something to get this turned around fast, with Washington coming into the X on Thursday. With the Capitals high flying offense they could get into penalty trouble again but it is looking like that is not their only problem that is starting to show.
Thanks for reading, I’m always open to feed back so let me know what you think. Follow me on twitter at @josh_sargent for more Wild updates.
Poll question. No, Wild fans should not be worried about the season becuase there is nothing to worry about. They are right where they should be in the standings. This team is no better than 7th or less than 10th. It will be a roller coaster year, ups and downs. If there are any significant injuries to either Koivu, Burns, Cullen, Backstrom, Latrendresse... this team will be much closer to 10th in the final standings.... Last nights game showed 1 thing, the Wild are very slow on their 1st and 3rd lines with the exception of Koivu and Clutterbuck. This team badly needs Granlund but that will wait till next season, not to mention a true 1st line winger. Miettinen needs to be on our 3rd line and it's time to give Clutterbuck the chance to be a goal scorer.... Also the penatly call against koivu to give the 5-3 advanage looked very weak from my angle at the game. Anywho, this team needs to get younger on offense
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