With just 4 games remaining in the regular season, the Minnesota Wild are getting hot at the right time. Mikko Koivu had a goal and an assist and Niklas Backstrom had 28 saves en route to a 4-0 win over the Vancouver Canucks. The game featured everything a Wild fan could want: a dominating win by a team that had been struggling to score, a brawl in the middle of the third period, and a wicked performance by Backstrom that propelled the Wild to victory.
The Wild jumped out to a 1-0 lead quickly in the first period when Pierre-Marc Bouchard took a beautiful pass from Benoit Pouliot and blasted a slapshot past Roberto Luongo from the top of the circle at the 11:37 mark of the period. That was just the beginning of a scoring barrage that lasted for a period and a half. It took only 6 more minutes for the Wild to score again, and this time it was Mikko Koivu who cashed in for the Wild. With Koivu in possession of the puck deep in the Canucks zone, he threw it across the left circle to Brian Rolston, who passed it back to Koivu who in one fluid motion deked Willie Mitchell out of his breezers and lifted the puck past Luongo at the 17:21 mark of the first. That was it for scoring in the first period as the Wild wound down one of their best periods of play in a long time.
The second period started off with the Wild dominating again, but it took until the 8:28 mark for them to sneak one past Luongo again. Pavol Demitra carried the puck behind Luongo, looking to dump it off to Marian Gaborik. Gabby came streaking behind the net and took the puck to the sidewall where he passed it across the middle to a streaking Brent Burns who shot it home to give the Wild a 3-0 lead. Exactly 5 minutes later, the Wild put the dagger in the hearts of the Canucks. After a broken play in the Wild zone, Gaborik gathered the puck and used his speed to skate down the rink on the right side with just one man in front of him. Gabby looked to his left and saw Todd Fedoruk streaking with him, giving the Wild a 2 on 1. As Gabby crossed the blueline, he slowed down to allow Fedoruk to catch up, and threw the puck across the ice to Fridge as he held on long enough for Luongo to make the first move. Fridge hit the top shelf to give the Wild the 4-0 lead, and all the insurance they would need. After that fourth goal, Curtis Sanford came in for the depleted Luongo, who had given up all 4 goals in less than two full periods.
After 4 goals for the home team, you'd think the fans would be happy at that, but what happened at the 9:43 mark of the third really made the fans excited. Up to this point, there hadn't been many penalties in the game, not like the usual Vancouver/Minnesota matchups. But about halfway through the third, that all changed. After an attempted spear by Alex Burrows, Bouchard reacted with a retaliatory slash that could be heard around the arena. As soon as Bouchard hit Burrows, all hell broke loose. All 10 players on the ice reacted in a split second, and soon, 10 pairs of gloves and 10 sticks were on the ice. Players were being held back by one another, and Burns soon got tangled with Nathan McIver. After Burns pounded McIver, Bouchard squared off with Burrows. Neither got any real punches off, and they were split before anything else got started. It took a good 10 minutes for the penalties to be handed out, and this is how they went:
Alex Burrows: Fighting Major (5 minutes) and a 10 minute match penalty for intent to injure
Nathan McIver: Fighting Major (5 minutes)
Brent Burns: Fighting Major (5 minutes), instigator (2 minutes), unsportsmanlike conduct (2 minutes), and a 10 minute game misconduct
Pierre-Marc Bouchard: Fighting Major (5 minutes) and a slashing major (5 minutes)
With all that settled, the Canucks ended up with a 4 minute powerplay, but that was soon shortened to just over a minute after Henrik Sedin took a penalty for interference just after the melee ended. The Wild continued their dominance for the rest of the game, and ended up with the much-needed big win they had been looking for for a month. If the Wild continue to play the way they did tonight for the rest of the season, there is no doubt they will make it deep into the playoffs.
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