Wild run out of gas, fall to the Red Wings

The curse of the Red Wings hits the Wild again.

After flying out of the gate Tuesday versus Detroit, the Wild looked like they were on their way to a rare victory over the conference leading Red Wings, but it seems fate was working against them yet again. After jumping out to a 2-1 lead, the Wild gave up the tying goal with less than 2 minutes to play, and eventually fell in overtime. After getting blown out by the Red Wings in their two meetings earlier this season, the Wild finally stole a shootout victory over them back on January 10th, and they were hoping to shift some of that momentum to this game. The Wild played what turned out to be their best two periods of the season until ultimately running out of gas in the third. Niklas Backstrom played a strong game between the pipes, and Brent Burns handled the puck well at the blueline, but at the end of the night, it wasn't enough to take down the goliath that is Detroit.

The first period started out very promising as the Wild promptly took control of the game and fired shot after shot on Dominik Hasek, but Hasek held strong until his team caught the Wild offguard when Johan Franzen fired home a wristshot at the 9:58 mark of the first to put the Red Wings ahead 1-0. The Wild were playing strong, though, and it didn't take long for them to respond with a goal of their own. Brian Rolston took the puck behind Hasek and, without anybody challenging him, walked up in front of the net and danced around Hasek and banked a shot behind the goalie to tie the game. The Wild continued to play a strong period and ended up out-shooting the Red Wings 13-6.

After the break, the Wild remained the dominant team and once again was outplaying Detroit in every aspect of the game. The normal finesse game of the Red Wings was being broken up by good defensive plays and hard hits. The Wild finally pulled ahead when Pavol Demitra got behind the Detroit blue-liners and fired a slapshot from just outside the left faceoff circle 5:30 into the period. Things got a little testy in the second when at the 9:48 mark Aaron Voros got clocked into the Detroit bench and quickly retaliated with a punch that resulted in two roughing calls. The Wild promptly went to work with a brilliant penalty kill that gave them all the confidence they needed heading into the locker room after the second.

All season the Wild had been lights-out heading into the third with a lead, but when it's a one goal lead versus the best team in the NHL, nothing is a gurantee. The third started out completely different from the first two periods; the Wild were on the defense most of the period right from the get-go. After getting lucky on numerous occasions, the Wild finally let their lead slip with just 1:20 left in the game. Daniel Cleary crashed the Wild net and threw the puck at Backstrom, who blocked the puck easily but then made the mistake of pushing the puck into the corner. Cleary again took control of the puck and took a bad-angle shot that just slipped through the outstretched Backstrom. That quickly took the energy out of the Xcel as well as out of the Wild. The home team limped through the remaining minute and took the game into overtime where they were guranteed at least one point. It didn't take long for the Red Wings to take advantage of the depleted Wild, and Brent Lebda connected on a beautiful pass from Henrik Zetterberg just 1:37 into the fourth frame to give the extra point to Detroit.

This loss was especially hard to swallow considering how well the Wild played the first 40 minutes. This was easily the best I've seen the Wild play Detroit for many years, and I hope they can look at this game and take a little bit of confidence out of it. They played well, and this loss was nobody's fault in particular, the team just collectively ran out of gas. The Wild have a tough stretch coming up next, so let's hope they can continue to build on their success they've had the last handful of games. The Wild will be taking on the Dallas Stars and the New York Islanders at home and then going on the road for the St. Louis Blues, Edmonton Oilers, and Vancouver Canucks. Hopefully the Wild can take some positive out of this game against Detroit and continue on their road to the playoffs.