Wild deliver crushing blow to Avalanche

In a must-win game for the Minnesota Wild, it was a couple of the usual suspects that showed up and got the W for the visiting team. Niklas Backstrom was unbelievable in making 44 saves en route to a 3-2 overtime victory for the Minnesota Wild.

It was a game that featured lead changes throughout and plenty of action up and down the ice. The Wild, for the third game this series and third game in a row, let in the first goal of the game, a rebound shot by Andrew Brunette that put the Avalanche up 1-0 at the 15:19 mark of the first. There are so many amazing story lines already in this series, but the most telling is the Wild's tendency to break out in the third period and overtime. The game stayed at 1-0 through the second period as the Avalanche fired 17 shots at Backstrom. Both teams were getting there chances, yet neither team was breaking through. This was a game that Colorado had a ton of chances to get ahead, due to the horrible officiating that was displayed. Every call, no matter how little or how blatant, was a penalty on the Wild. It literally seemed like the Wild would kill a penalty, and then immediately get called for another one. The Wild had their chances on the powerplay too, just not as many as there should have been. When the third period rolled around, it was the Wild taking control again. The Wild in this series have a total of 8 goals: 6 of those have come in the third period, while the other two came in overtime. Needless to say, the Wild are quite lucky that they can keep the game within reach in the first couple periods. True to their form this series, the Wild quickly tied the game at 1-1 when at the 7:13 mark of the third Todd Fedoruk hustled down the Avalanche end, scooped up the puck and swiftly threw it in front of the net where Mikko Koivu was waiting to tie the game. It was a beautiful goal that involved two of the Wild's most important players right now in Fedoruk and Koivu.

Tying the game up was a boost to the Wild, who were looking for something to give them the momentum. After Koivu was called for a tripping penalty at the 10:26 mark of the period, the Wild continued to dump the puck for about a minute before Pavol Demitra was able to slip by the Colorado defenders. Demo carried the puck up the left side with Brian Rolston on his right and Colorado defensemen Jean-Michael Liles in between them. Demo stick-handled the puck through the left faceoff circle where he got Liles and goalie Jose Theodore to commit. Demitra then threw the puck across the ice to a streaking Rolston, who shot the puck into the empty net to give the Wild the lead with less than 10 minutes to play. Although they had the momentum in their favor, you can never count out the Avalanche when they put Joe Sakic and Peter Forsberg out there. It took just over 3 minutes for Colorado to tie the game again, this time on a bouncing puck in front of the Minnesota net that Sakic was able to corral and put pass Backstrom. The teams continued to play evenly for the rest of the game until time was winding down in regulation and David Jones took a slashing penalty to give the Wild a powerplay with 8 seconds remaining in the game.

The Wild came out firing on the powerplay in overtime, but of course it was to no avail. Theodore was a stone wall out there, as he has been the entire series. The overtime featured even more scoring chances for each team, but both goaltenders were committed to keeping their team in the game. Finally at the 11:58 mark of overtime, the Wild was rewarded for its hard work when Rolston hustled down the ice to avoid an icing call and threw the puck into the middle of the ice to a waiting Pierre-Marc Bouchard, who buried the puck behind Theodore and sent the Wild into a frenzy.

This was a wicked important game for the Wild to win, not simply because it puts them up 2-1 in the series, but also because it helps reclaim their home ice advantage they had taken away when Colorado won game one in St. Paul. The real test for both teams will be tomorrow night when they play their second game in two days. With the Wild shorthanded due to injuries and the Avalanche having no shortage of older veterans, it will be interesting to see which team will come out firing first in a game that should ultimately decide how the rest of this series goes.