By Jamie MacDonald
FOXSportsNorth.com
January 4, 2011
Believe it or not, the Wild -- who have taken some criticism for coughing up leads and playing a couple of clunkers over the past few weeks -- are also one of the West's top teams over that span. On Tuesday in New Jersey, the visitors ran their record to 6-2-1 since Dec. 18 and inched closer to a playoff spot thanks to a second consecutive game won in a manner no one could have drawn up.
While it took an improbable overtime thriller to salvage two points at home on Sunday, it took a fluky bounce and Clayton Stoner's first NHL goal to tuck away a 2-1 win in Newark, the first of three road stops for the Wild this week.
Stoner's goal came only 1:14 into a rubber-match third period, which was preceded by a tale of two very different frames for each team. The game-winner came on a dump-in from the red line that caught Devils goaltender Johan Hedberg leaving the crease to play the puck behind the net. Only the puck didn't go behind the net.
It clipped the stick of Ilya Kovalchuk, bounced off the nearest dasher board at a sharp angle and skittered nearly half the length of the ice and came to rest in the back of the net. Hedberg could only dive back in a fruitless effort to make the save, and by the time he came to a sliding halt between the face-off circles, Stoner's teammates were already wearing smiles.
"I think I'm going to be burning the tape on this one," Stoner joked on the television broadcast afterward of his first NHL goal. "I might be the only guy to score [and be] celebrating from the bench."
RUBBER-MATCH THIRD
In the first period, the Wild held New Jersey to a single shot. The Devils, even with the game's first power play, simply could not build any momentum in their own end, let alone the offensive zone. Minnesota built a shots leads of 6-0, with New Jersey's first shot coming at 11:23 of the first -- which was followed at 11:38 by the Wild's first goal. In all, Minnesota outshot the Devils 8-1 in the first in a period that was just that lopsided.
Jacques Lemaire must have come up with something inspiring between periods, though, as his team came out for the second in a new gear. The balance of a Brent Burns penalty at 19:50 of the first may have helped, as New Jersey landed three shots on Jose Theodore, and the Devils tied the game at 3:07.
New Jersey outshot the Wild 14-4 in the second to set the stage for a largely even third.
In fact, the difference turned out to be a bounce that very easily could have gone the other way only seconds earlier.
On Stoner's game-winner, the Devils were a possession removed from Kovalchuk darting into the zone, drawing defenders and dishing to a too-open Travis Zajac for a shot from the middle of the zone.
Kyle Brodziak blocked that shot, Pierre-Marc Bouchard picked up the puck and passed it to Martin Havlat, who moved it to Stoner for the fortuitous dump-in.
KOVALCHUK'S IMPACT
Kovalchuk's fingerprints were all over the puck during the game's most critical plays. In the first, he was, even he would likely admit, not very good. On the power play that began at 7:54 of the first (Brad Staubitz picked up a double minor for roughing while David Clarkson earned two minutes for roughing right back), Kovalchuk had his pocket picked by Cal Clutterbuck at center ice. Clutterbuck headed in alone and took a dangerous shot on goal.
A few minutes later, Kovalchuk blew a tire coming up the ice and coughed the puck up in the neutral zone. Clutterbuck picked up the loose puck, charged toward the net and ripped a quick shot over Hedberg for a 1-0 lead at 11:38 of the first. The goal was Clutterbuck's 11th of the season to lead Wild forwards in that regard.
In the second, like his team, Kovalchuk had much more jump -- and was at times electric. He flashed into an open spot near the face-off dot to Theodore's right for Zajac, took a pass from his teammate, held the puck for an extra beat as two Wild players neared, then fired a wrister in to tie the game at 1-1.
And, of course, on Stoner's game-winner, it was Kovalchuk's stick that altered the course of the puck, and the game, with the deflection.
LINEUP CHANGES
With Antti Miettinen out of the lineup, Chuck Kobasew played on the right side with Mikko Koivu and Andrew Brunette. Shifting around some of the other right wingers, Todd Richards had Matt Cullen centering Patrick O'Sullivan and Clutterbuck, while longtime Devils forward John Madden played between Eric Nystrom and Staubitz. Brodziak, used as a primary center between Bouchard and Havlat, he was hit by a puck early in the third and was limited to 11:01 for the game.
Overall, though, Richards seemed content distributing minutes, as 13 players had at least 13 minutes of icetime.
STANDINGS UPDATE
Minnesota began the day No. 13 overall in the West, behind teams it had a chance to leapfrog in previous weeks -- Phoenix, Columbus and Nashville. With Tuesday's win, the Wild moved up to 11th overall and are only two points out of a playoff spot with 43. For an indication of how tight things are in the West, the Wild are also only five points from No. 4 overall -- and 14th.
UP NEXT
The East Coast swing rolls on, with the Wild headed to Boston for Thursday night's 6 p.m. CDT start against the Bruins.
Boston opened the season 7-2-0 but hadn't been able to get much further above .500 until it neared Christmas, which was preceded by rumors that Claude Julien was on the hot seat. Since Dec. 23, the Bruins have won four of six, losing the other two by way of shutout. Boston's most recent game was a 2-1 Jan. 3 win over the Maple Leafs.
Minnesota will close out the three-game trip in Pittsburgh on Jan. 8 before returning for one of its three January home games on Jan. 9.
