And so I was down to my last NHL game on this trip. It was sad knowing I would be heading home the following day. However I still had another game to enjoy. It started when I met Doug at the Arena Bar. I had got to know him and his buddy Andy the night before at the Timberwolves game and he promised me a Minnesotan Beer to try as he was working behind the bar. While supping on the local brew I got chatting to a couple from Northern Michigan who were Wings fans. It was closer for them to get to St Paul to watch the Wings play the Wild than it is to get to Detroit. Much of the conversation centered around Mike Babcock, and how he used to play for my local English team the Whitley Warriors and where he might be heading if rumors are to be believed and he is leaving the Wings. We all think the Leafs!
The Wild may have the most points in the NHL since mid-January, but this is still the Wild. Historically, the franchise rarely makes things easy, so it should come as no shock that with a chance to put themselves in the playoffs, the Wild has lost two games in a row for the first time since Jan. 19-20. But this loss to the desperate Detroit Red Wings came in a marathon, eight-round shoot-out. A video review confirmed Darren Helm's shot hit the inside of Devan Dubnyk's left pad just over the goal line.
It didn't help that captain Mikko Koivu, tied for second in NHL history with 39 shootout goals, was a late scratch with a scratched cornea. He made it through warmups but couldn't play due to what sounds like an off-ice injury. The Wild said Koivu is day-to-day. His absence sent his line with Nino Niederreiter abd Chris Stewart into flux. Erik Haula, scratched Thursday, started in Koivu's 5-on-5 spot and Mikael Granlund took Koivu's top power-play unit spot. By the second, Haula and Charlie Coyle changed places. By the third, Haula was demoted to the fourth line and ultimately benched.
Parise got things started with 5:53 left in the first period, but was just 1:52 later, Riley Sheahan tied it. The Wild had a chance to take the lead in the second when Detroit took back-to-back penalties, which included a Wild two-man advantage. Parise, Pominville, Granlund, Ryan Suter and Matt Dumba stayed on for two-plus minutes and didn't record a shot. Gustav Nyquist ironically gave Detroit a 2-1 lead on a power play. The Wild's power play ranks 28th, connecting 15.6% of the time. Regardless, Parise tied the game at 2-2 in the third with his team-leading 32nd goal and team-leading 10th power-play goal. The Wild failed on two power plays to win the game after.
Former Buffalo Sabres teammates Jason Pominville and Thomas Vanek are second and third on the Wild's scoring. Both reached the 50 point mark in the week leading up to this game. Vanek has flourished since he stopped moving around the lineup, finding stability at left wing and excellent chemistry with linemates Charlie Coyle and Justin Fontaine.
Game in a Nutshell
Darren Helm was caught off guard as the seventh round of a shootout went to the eighth. With a chance to win, Red Wings coach Mike Babcock called Helm's number, and the veteran came through. His backhand-forehand move got Wild goaltender Devan Dubnyk on his belly, giving Helm an open net to shoot at, helping Detroit to a 3-2 victory at Xcel Energy Center. Helm's shot was ruled no goal on the ice after Dubnyk appeared to make a save with the back of his left pad. But it was determined by video review that the puck had already crossed the goal line. Dubnyk made 20 saves.
Wild Quotes
Mike Yeo: "Any point you get right now is big. That's the frustrating thing about the shootout. It's a loss. It feels like a loss, but I don't want to say it's a coin flip, but it can go either way. It's not like we were that bad; let's not paint that picture. We played a pretty darn good hockey team tonight and we knew they were going to play their best game. [Koivu] scratched his cornea, but he should be fine by Monday. I thought Haula looked tired tonight. I'm not sure why. We've spent considerable amount of time on our power play. I will say that for sure. I will also say that because of that we've also lost other areas of our game in that practice."Zach Parise: "They were better than us the first two periods, no question. I thought we started to play a little simpler and a little smarter in the third and I thought that's when we started to feel a little better about how we were playing. It's not going to do any good for me to say anything. it wasn't good enough. We've got to practice it."
Ryan Suter: [power play] been a struggle all year. We have to get it going. It doesn't do any good to talk about the past chances. We have to focus moving forward. We have to practice it more for sure and we have to be better at it.
Red Wings Quotes
Mike Babcock: didn't know he was going to go with Helm either. After the first three or four shooters, Babcock went with an unconventional method to decide who jumped over the boards next.
"I just asked (backup goaltender) Pete Mrazek who he thought was any good. He's the guy who's faced them; I don't face them. [Assistant coach Andrew Brewer] has all the math on everybody, and so we go based on that, but you get to a point and I just ask Mrazek who should shoot."
Jimmy Howard: "I just wanted to go out there and give the guys a chance to win and to have fun. That's why we do this; it's fun to us. That's what I tried to get back to."
Stars of the Game
1 Darren Helm - netted the shoot-out winner.
2 Zach Parise - scored two goals, including a key power-play goal, his team-leading 10th.
3 Gustav Nyquist - scored a power-play goal and scored in the shoot-out.
Special mention to Riley Sheahan, who scored one goal and drew the penalty that led to a goal.
Goals
1-0 - 14:07 - EHG Zach Parise Asst: Mikael Granlund, Jason Pominville - Zach
Parise scored the game's first goal at 14:07 of the first period following a Detroit turnover at their own blue line.
1-1 - 15:59 - EHG Riley Sheahan Asst: Stephen Weiss, Danny DeKeyser - Detroit tied the score when Riley Sheahan pounced on a rebound and beat Dubnyk at 15:59.
2-1 - 37:13 - PPG Gustav Nyquist Asst: Henrik Zetterberg, Niklas Kronwall - The Red Wings took advantage of their first power play of the night late in the second when Gustav Nyquist fired a shot from a sharp angle over Dubnyk's shoulder at 17:13, giving Detroit a 2-1 lead.
2-2 - 46:33 - PPG Zach Parise Asst: Jason Pominville, Ryan Suter - Zach Parise scored a between-the-legs redirection for his second goal of the night with 13:27 remaining in the third period to tie the score 2-2.
Shootout
1 Z. Parise X P. Datsyuk X
2 C. Coyle X G. Nyquist [Scored]
3 J. Pominville [Scored] T.Tatar X
4 T. Vanek [Scored] R. Sheahan [Scored]
5 N. Niederreiter X H. Zetterberg X
6 C. Stewart X S. Weiss X
7 M. Granlund X N. Kronwall X
8 J. Fontaine X D. Helm [Scored]
Stats
- The Red Wings (41-24-13) remain tied with the Boston Bruins for third place in the Atlantic Division; Detroit has played one fewer game. Detroit and Boston are three points ahead of the Ottawa Senators. The teams are also competing for a wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference.- Jimmy Howard made 22 saves through overtime, and then denied six Wild shooters in the tiebreaker for his first win since March 22.
- Minnesota (44-26-8) has lost consecutive games for the first time since Jan. 19 and 20, but the Wild remain four points ahead of the Winnipeg Jets for the first wild card into the playoffs from the Western Conference. Minnesota had a chance to clinch a playoff berth with a win and other results.
- Parise's 32 goals lead the Wild.
- Wild scored 30 third-period goals since Feb. 22, a stretch of 20 games. The most in NHL during that time. Also allowed 8 third-period goals during the same time, the fewest in the NHL.
Penalties
| 1st Period | ||
|---|---|---|
| 04:27 DET | Niklas Kronwall Tripping against Chris Stewart | |
| 2nd Period | ||
| 06:24 DET | Niklas Kronwall Interference against Chris Stewart | |
| 07:36 DET | Kyle Quincey Interference against Jason Pominville | |
| 15:22 MIN | Erik Haula Holding against Riley Sheahan | |
| 3rd Period | ||
| 05:59 DET | Danny DeKeyser Concealing puck | |
| 08:31 MIN | Justin Fontaine Holding against Tomas Tatar | |
| 10:25 DET | Stephen Weiss Too many men/ice - bench | |
| 17:29 DET | Stephen Weiss Tripping against Ryan Suter | |
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