The Minnesota Wild concluded a 3 game road trip going from
west to east in a period of 5 days with a game in Columbus Sunday.
The last 2 games just have been tough to watch as the Wild
were falling behind quickly. Thursday in Los Angeles the Wild got shut out for
the first time all year to complicate things even further. It is time for a break.
The team finally had a couple days off,so how would they
look Sunday night? Can the Wild get out
front for the first time on the road trip?
Wild goalie, Backstrom was pulled after giving up two goals
on two shots Thursday. The question is how will he look between the pipes against
the Blue Jackets?
The Columbus Blue Jackets come into the game going 9-0-3 the
last 12 home games. Backstrom is 16-0-2 after getting pulled. There is so much
on the line with the season coming to a close.
The first period I saw good signs as the Wild appeared to
have their legs and although the Blue Jackets did not have many shots on goal,
Backstrom looked better.
Columbus is 5th in the league with a 86 percent
penalty kill rate. The Wild go 2 for 3 on the power play tonight. It has got to be the Wild’s night, I thought and
hoped.
The Wild passing was sharp and the results were two
beautiful power play goals. New addition Pominville no look behind the back
pass to Suter who deposited the puck in the net was a great start to the
scoring.
The second power play goal was again a work of art watching Mikael
Granlund made beautiful feed to Charlie Coyle to give the Wild a 2-0 lead. The power
play looked so much better Sunday.
The last hand full of the games the Wild penalty kill was
weak giving up to many goals. The game in Columbus the Wild worked so hard and
went 4 for 4 killing penalties. What a relief to see the effort and tenacity by
all involved on the penalty kill.
Jason Pominville showed Sunday why the Wild gave up so much
to get him. The pass setting up Suter’s goal and the final goal of the night as
Parise set up Jason to slam it in giving him his first goal as a Wild and his
first multi point game for his new team. It is only his 2nd game in
a Wild uniform and look at the results. The nice thing to know is in time the
number one line will get better with each shift they skate together.
Backstrom gets a shutout after being yanked in the Los
Angeles. It is so nice to have a goalie who can overcome adversity.
It is a fun night to be a Wild fan as we watch our team jump
to 6th in the Wild West Conference.
The team now comes home for 3 home games starting Tuesday with the Black Hawks coming to the X.
A great team win!!!!!!
Thanks for reading
Purplestick
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