Wild win at home over Dallas

Wild fans who made the trip to the X Saturday night were met with a pleasant surprise Saturday night: The Wild came to play in the first period! It helped that Dallas was called for two early penalties and Minnesota was able to set the tempo with the man advantage. This was an entertaining hockey game that had a lot of positives. Thoughts and links below...

• The first comment is an obvious one that was made all night long. Marty Havlat shot the puck the most he has all season long and still managed to make a few brilliant passes. I think he may have picked up the local papers or read the blogs and comments over the weekend because that seemed to be a common gripe.
• Cal Clutterbuck scored with a perfect shot and decision on a two-on-one. His great hustle set up the short handed goal and then as the defenseman went down he snapped it home. He also fired a a number of good shots when the Wild enjoyed a 4-on-3 man advantage. After this display I wonder if they may use him more on a top power play unit and put him in the slot with either Koivu or Havlat looking to feed him the puck in the slot.
• M Zidlicky continues to be the Wild's best defenseman. He picks his spots pinching better than any other member of the team and has been sound defensively all year. On Koivu's goal he pinched in and made a great pass to set up Koivu in front of the net. Koivu's initial shot didn't get in but he got some help from Zidlicky and scored from a funky angle.
• Nicholas Backstrom, John Scott and Shane Hnidy all rebouned nice from bad nights Thursday.
• Benoit Puliot played instead of James Shepard and played well. He is so much more dangerous than Shepard when he has the puck and is playing harder and surprisingly just as good in the nuetral zone and defensive zone.
• Todd Richards likes the line of Kyle Brodziak, Chuck Kobasew and Cal Clutterbuck because they all bring the intensity and make things happen. It would be nice to take one of those guys and their ability to forecheck and put it with some skilled players. I'd like to see Havlat stay with Belanger and add Kobasew to that line. Kobasew can get dirty and try to get the puck for those guys and has shown in his career the ability to finish which is important when playing with a passer like Havlat. Then I think if you put Petr Sykora with Brodziak and Clutterbuck you can add a great passer like Sykora to a line of hard workers and I also believe this would raise the offensive game of Clutterbuck. Clutterbuck might be a 20 goal scorer if he played with more skilled players.

Watch Game Highlights HERE
Read AP Game Story HERE
Read Michael Russo-Star Tribune Game Story HERE
Read Glen Andreson wild.com Game Story HERE
Read Bruce Brothers- Pioneer Press Game Story HERE

Read Michael Russo notes featuring Havlat HERE
Read Bruce Brothers notes featuring Mike Modano HERE
Read Bruce Brothers Article on owner Craig Leipold HERE
Read Michael Russo Article on James Shepard HERE