Wild Game 3 Beyond the Box Score

In true blogging fasion, here's thoughts on last night game while it was happening...


Col Goal 1
Tough to blame anyone for this goal as Wolski did what he’s been so effective doing and that is keeping possession of the puck along the boards and waiting for a passing lane to open or his numbers to improve. On this play Wolski slid it to Sakic for a quick shot and Brunette had an easy put home on the rebound.

Two things happened: 1. The Wild were making a bad line change as the three forwards got caught deep in the offensive zone and then changed on the Avs rush. 2. Burns went for the block shot on Sakic and abandoned Brunette.

MN Goal 1
The third period magic continues as Fedoruk hustles to the puck and throws it blindly to the front and one candidate for MVP of the series Koivu swatted the puck out of midair and beat Theodore on a night where he was perfect to this point.

MN Goal 2
This all started with something that sometimes the Wild lack; anticipation. Pavol Demitra saw that the puck was going to be played up far wall and jumped in and intercepted. Because his anticipation was so sharp, he had his next move mapped out as he skated around the pinching defenseman and turned it into a 2-on-1. Demitra is not always great, but when it comes to handling the puck on an odd-man-rush, nobody does it better for the Wild than Demitra.

Col goal 2
You can put all of the blame for this goal on Sean Hill. Hill skated back to the Wild zone to get the puck and did exactly what kills teams in close games and that’s shoving the puck up the boards on the strong side. The veteran Sakic was waiting for the weak clearing attempt by Hill and got the puck quickly to the net. Hill had a chance to redeem himself in front of the net but couldn’t muster enough effort to clear the puck or win the battle.

Hill was being pressured by Forsberg when he played the puck up the wall, but he could have easily flipped the puck to his defensive partner or at least flip it to the weak side where he could have gotten back-check help.

MN OT winner
Rolston often finds himself in the right place at the right time, but he deserves a ton of credit for putting himself in those spots. On what looked to be an icing Rolston saw that the puck wasn’t going to come out behind the net, so he took a short cut to the near side while Finger went to the far. The Rolston picked his head up and had options on whom to feed and he chose wisely hitting Pierre Marc Bouchard who put the puck over the glove-side shoulder of Theodore.

But what was absolutely critical on this goal was that Demitra was hanging out on the backside. Sauer went down to block the shot and Theodore couldn’t fully commit to the shot because Demitra was also waiting for a pass on the opposite side. That non committal by Theodore allowed Bouchard to pick his corner.

Other thoughts

• Backstrom was amazing last night and that game was proof that the Wild are capable of making a serious post season run.
• Nummelin has played well, but he could take another step by just being more ready to shoot the puck in the hurry. He's so good at finding an opening so that a passer can find him, now he just neeeds to be prepared to pull the trigger when the puck gets on his tape.
• People shouldn't worry about Gaborik's contribution. He's playing hard, generating chances and most importantly working hard on the defensive side, so the points will come. The Avs are very worried every time he touches the puck an that helps other Wild players around him.
• Lemaire is going to have to be very selective when he plays Sean Hill. Right now he's a liability defensively and in hindsight he shouldn't have been on the ice late in the game with a one goal lead.