MN Hockey News

 

The slumping Los Angeles Kings offered up the remedy for the equally slumping Minnesota Wild who rode the crest of two power play goals and a gutty penalty kill unit to a 3-2 victory at Xcel Energy Center. The loss for the Kings is their fourth straight and are a dismal 4-7-2 in their last 13 games. 

 

Wild winger Owen Nolan opened the scoring on the power play as he shoveled a backhand past Kings goalie Jonathan Quck who was searching for his 40th win of the season.  "The ice was terrible tonight," Nolan said, "I didn't have time to settle it down, just kind of whacked it towards the net and it found its way in."  The goal, his 16th of the season, also moved him into 98th all time in the NHL for points (422g-463a-885pts) and he is one point shy of tying Peter Forsberg for 97th on the all time points list. 

 

Brent Burns opened up a 2-0 lead on a terrific effort.  While playing four on four, Burns took a puck off the left point,  protected the puck and made a move at the top of the left circle, shielded the puck and went to the glove side shelf on Quick for the 2-0 lead.  

 

"That goal he scored was a great individual play," Wild coach Todd Richards said.  "Some guys made some good plays to lead up to that point, but to catch the puck where he did, pretty much all in one motion, catch it, bring it up in front of you and beat a man and then make a good strong play going to the net, I mean, it was just a great shot."

 

The Wild dodged a bullet as the Kings were awarded their first of two five on three power plays.  Los Angeles came up empty and were forced to get the job done five on five.  They were very good even up all night as King winger Dustin Brown agreed, "I'm not going to sit here and say we didn't play a good game.  Five on five I thought we did."

 

A pair of even strength five on five goals by Scott Sparse tied the score at two.  His first came off a defection at 12:47 of the second period and he tied the game at 2 early in the third period at 1:25 with his 10th of the season.  Just :35 later both Minnesota defensemen on the ice were whistled for separate infractions as Nick Schultz (cross checking) and Mark Zidlicky (hooking) put the Kings on a 2 minute five on three man advantage. 

 

The Kings never got a shot through as the Wild pk unit never left the ice.  Nolan tipped his cap to the three pk warriors as he said, "Those guys did a great job. They pretty much had it in there the whole two minutes and couldn't get off.  It was a great job blocking shots and doing whatever they could to get the puck out."

 

The Kings were not able to produce on the power play and were burned for a pair of power play goals by the Wild that ended up being the difference in the game. "They had a lot of blocked shots.  Give those guys credit for their penalty kill," Kings coach Terry Murray said.  "On the other side of it, when you have a five on three, that's a critical moment in the game. You have to show the composure to make plays.  We've got the right people, the right shooting opportunities, but we've got to put pucks on the net."

 

Putting the puck on the net is what the Wild did on the power play and it was a howitzer by Martin Havlat at 7:38 of the third period that was the difference.  He one timed a pass from Marek Zidlicky to beat Quck for the 3-2 lead.  

 

It held up as wild goalie Nicklas Backstrom added some impressive saves to his already solid resume.  He picked up his 26th win of the season.  For the Wild, the stand tied with Anaheim for 11th place with 80 points  nine points off the pace of 8th place Colorado.  

 

Without question, it is a next to impossible task for the Wild to qualify for the playoffs but Nolan said, there is more on the line than pride, "Obviously its pride, it's also our jobs.  You don't want to be looked at as a quitter and you want to make sure you compete right to the end."