Posted: December 12, 2010 2:15 a.m. CT
By Jamie MacDonald
FOXSportsNorth.com
The good news for fans who wanted to watch the Wild Saturday night: Where else were they going to go? As the Wild enjoyed the warmth of Los Angeles, a snow storm pretty much locked down the Twin Cities. The bad news? Games don't come later than the 9:30 p.m. CST start.
So why not just test the eyelids of the many who spent their afternoons and evenings shoveling a foot of snow? And, for good measure, why not keep them up after midnight with an overtime finish?
In the end, Brent Burns rewarded the hearty with what might have been an improbable 3-2 overtime win over the Kings.
It took a pair of gifts from Los Angeles goaltender Jonathan Quick, overcoming 15:15 of Kings power-play time over nine chances, 14 blocked shots, two key Jose Theodore right pad saves down the stretch and Burns' one-timer from the point to beat a team that had been 4-0 in OT.
Minnesota extended a modest winning streak to two games, and has not lost in regulation in four games.
"It was a big-time performance," said Todd Richards, who also pointed out the hole his team dug for itself with penalties.
Already missing Matt Cullen and John Madden, taking so many penalties (three high sticking and two cross checking) is rarely a recipe for success, but Saturday was an odd night, one that saw an official 59 hits in a spirited meeting that also saw two off-the-draw fights.
FRESH START
What the game lacked in shots through the first 10 minutes, it made up for in action. Before the proceedings were a minute old, the Kings had a goal waived off because Dustin Brown was camped out in Jose Theodore's personal space.
On the second shift, Alexei Ponikarovsky hammered Greg Zanon from his own goal line to the boards behind Theodore, to which Kyle Brodziak took great exception and earned a roughing penalty in sparking a spirited post-hit scrum.
Before three minutes had elapsed, Mikko Koivu scored the game's first goal on the ensuing penalty kill.
As Brodziak exited the box, Chuck Kobasew hit a pipe on his first shift and Koivu got about as hot as Koivu gets, yelling at a Kings player before the game was four minutes old.
Not long after, alternating penalties led to a power play, 1:30 of 4-on-4 hockey, a brief 4-on-3, another 4-on-4 and a Kings power play.
Finally, at the 11:24 mark, a stoppage in play and a TV timeout allowed the game to settle a bit.
QUICK LOANS
Koivu opened the scoring thanks in large part to good break ... to his left. With the Kings on a power play and the puck headed toward Quick, Koivu was in hot pursuit a step behind Kings defenseman Drew Doughty. Just as Quick started his motion to clear the puck, Koivu curled hard to his left. Quick's clearing attempt wound up on Koivu's stick, tape-to-tape, and the Wild captain pumped in a 1-0 lead at 2:50.
"You're just trying to pick the side," said Koivu, who among his 23:21 of icetime skated 6:44 shorthanded (he also took 24 draws). "And he went to the forehand. Got lucky there."
In the second, nine seconds after the Kings had tied the game at 9:25, Cal Clutterbuck made good on a second Quick assist. Cam Barker dumped the puck in off the faceoff, ringing it around from left to right. Quick came went behind the net to play the puck, only to whiff. Clutterbuck pulled the puck off the wall and stepped out front to backhand a 2-1 lead into an open net at 9:34.
"I just wanted get in there and force him to make a decision he didn't want to make," Clutterbuck said. "I got a break and I put it in."
Shortly thereafter, the Kings crowd mocked Quick on a few successive, and far more successful, handlings of the puck.
BURNS ON FIRE
Brent Burns scored his eighth of the season on the game-winner, his second goal in as many games. Burns now has points in four of five games.
On Saturday, Burns led all skaters with 38 shifts, 28:15 in icetime and 7:46 of shorthanded time.
BEST ON THE BLOCK
Blocking shots isn't a glamor gig, and the Greg Zanon grimace isn't hockey's most graceful expression. But it is a thing of brutal beauty.
Zanon leads the Wild in blocked shots, and it's not by accident. Zanon's willing to block shots in a no-man's land of the defensive zone, especially on the penalty kill (he played 7:03 on the PK Saturday), where as a defenseman he can't stray too far from his own net. The unfortunate part of that geography is the likelihood that pucks will find spots on the body that aren't meant for shot-blocking. That, in turn, leads to the grimace on the bench a few seconds later.
On Saturday, Zanon blocked a game-high six shots, including one in the closing seconds of regulation. On a few occasions, as he did at the end of the Wild's win in Phoenix Thursday, he scrambled to his feet in obvious pain.
"Zanon's block at the end is a huge, huge play," said Richards.
WELLMAN'S WILD RIDE
Thanks to an in-game report from Kevin Gorg, we found out that Casey Wellman scored four goals for the Aeros Friday night in a 5-3 win. He picked a nice time for the baker's hat trick, too, as Wild GM Chuck Fletcher took in the festivities.
Wellman has 13 points in his last 14 games with Houston.
UP NEXT
The commutes don't get much shorter, as the Wild boarded a bus after the game for Anaheim. It's a quick turnaround, too, as the Wild play in a 5 p.m. local start (7 p.m. CST) against the Ducks.
"When we get off the bus, we'll start preparing for Anaheim," Richards said..
Richards also doubted Cullen or Madden would play Sunday, meaning the only likely lineup change would be Niklas Backstrom starting against the Ducks.
Anaheim did not play Saturday, and is coming off a run of three consecutive shootout finishes, including Friday night's 3-2 home win over Calgary.
Minnesota will return to the Twin Cities after the game and host Ottawa Thursday, which will be followed by alternating home and road games through Dec. 29.
