By Jamie MacDonald
FOXSportsNorth.com
February 17, 2011
Though they won't have much time to listen to it before playing again Friday night in Saint Paul, the buzz around the Wild in the coming days will likely be about goal-scoring. Specifically, a lack thereof.
By way of a 3-1 loss in Chicago on Wednesday, Minnesota has now skated through its previous two games -- on consecutive nights in different cities -- while scoring a combined two goals in a pair of losses.
Scoring hadn't generally been a problem over the past month for the Wild, who had enjoyed contributions from so many parts of the roster. Not so on Wednesday, when Minnesota lost consecutive games for the first time since Jan. 11 and 14 --coincidently the most recent time it scored twice in two games.
As they did on Tuesday, the Wild started strong and carried the play early (they jumped to a 12-2 shots advantage by the 8:40 mark of the first), but the similarities between the two games began to fade there. As opposed to Tuesday, when Minnesota probably deserved a better result than a 4-1 loss, Wednesday's game was often in the hands of the Blackhawks.
It was also in the hands of Mike Haviland, who earned his first win while serving as acting coach for Joel Quenneville. Quenneville was hospitalized early Wednesday with an undisclosed illness.
Credit the Blackhawks, too, for winning in their first home game since Jan. 25, a loss to the Wild, after six games on the road. Chicago also entered having won only two of its previous eight games in regulation.
With the loss, Minnesota allowed the Blackhawks to move within one point in the standings. The Wild now sits at No. 10 while Chicago is in 11th.
PLAYING SHORTHANDED
The Wild gave goaltender Corey Crawford a number of shots on which to build his resume while they built their shots advantage to 13-4 by the 11:30 mark of the first. Seven seconds later, though, Matt Cullen was called for a high stick, putting the league's top-ranked power play at home to work. And it wasn't long before the hosts made the most of their rare opportunity.
Brian Campbell opened the scoring with a seeing-eye shot through traffic from the top of the zone that beat Jose Theodore at 12:59.
Minnesota took only four more shots during the period, then went on to put itself a man down three more times in the second.
While the Wild managed to keep Chicago off the board as they killed penalties in the second, taking them at :42, 2:57 and 11:57 certainly didn't help generate offense.
Even returning to five-on-five hockey didn't much help Minnesota late in the second, as a 1:30 span saw Marian Hossa and Michael Frolik buzzing the zone, a Cullen giveaway at his blue line lead to a Campbell slap shot deflected off the post, a Bryan Bickell break-in that included walking Brent Burns, and another Hossa chance near the 18:00 mark.
The Blackhawks closed out the period with their 18th and final shot of the period at 19:57 and took its 1-0 lead into the third.
BRIGHT SPOT TURNS BLEAK
Chicago entered the game with a 21-3-3 record when leading after two, and the Wild were 1-19-1 when trailing after two, but the Wild, particularly Cullen, gave the visitors a good measure of hope to break the trend.
Kyle Brodziak's line, on the period's second shift, generated a scoring chance, followed by Cullen's line threatening another at the 2:00 mark. Antti Miettinen used his speed to beat Duncan Keith to the outside and rip off a slap shot at 3:41, and the Wild drew a penalty at 5:22.
Cullen, perhaps the Wild's most effective offensive threat Wednesday, knotted things on the ensuing power play.
Jared Spurgeon rushed up the middle of the ice, gained the zone and threaded a nifty pass into space between Campbell and Keith. Cullen zipped behind Keith, picked up the puck on his backhand, dropped a shoulder and set his feet to fend off Campbell, then moved to the forehand to beat Crawford at 6:59.
Less than :30 later, however, Chuck Kobasew was in the box for throwing his stick, and, :11 after that, it was 2-1 in favor of the hosts.
Officially, the goal went to Troy Brouwer, but the Wild helped things along. Off a draw in its end, Minnesota appeared set to clear, but Keith knocked John Madden's attempt down at the blue line and quickly moved the puck to Dave Bolland. Bolland moved it deep to Brouwer, who sent a pass across to Hossa on the far post.
Greg Zanon, with a well-intentioned effort to cut the pass off, knocked it in at 7:33. The Wild threatened near the 10:00 mark of the third, but were not able to sustain pressure the rest of the way.
An empty-netter from former Badger Jake Dowell at 19:01 accounted for the scoring.
UP NEXT
The last time Minnesota lost consecutive games, it went on to lose a third, too. The Wild will look to avoid that fate Friday night at Xcel Energy Center against streaking Anaheim.
The Ducks had won four straight, all on the road, until falling to the Caps, 7-6, Wednesday night in a late game on the West Coast.
Friday's game marks the opening of a three-game home stand for the Wild, who will also face Detroit (Sunday at 11:30 a.m.) and Edmonton (Feb. 22 at 7 p.m.).
