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Nathan MacKinnon and his equally skilled Colorado linemates Gabe Landeskog and Paul Stastny were too fast for Minnesota in the first two games. In losing twice to the Avalanche, the Wild found themselves flat-footed at the wrong times and letting their young, potent opponent dictate the pace and flow.
Teenager Nathan MacKinnon is growing up fast. Almost as fast as he skates. The speedy 18-year-old delivered another stellar performance for the Colorado Avalanche, scoring his first NHL postseason goal and dishing out three assists in a 4-2 win over the Minnesota Wild on Saturday night.
Colorado Avalanche coach Patrick Roy says he doesn't expect leading scorer Matt Duchene to play in the first-round playoff series against Minnesota. Duchene has been out since damaging the MCL in his left knee when he ran into a teammate against San Jose on March 29.
Patrick Roy showed as much boldness behind the bench as he once did as a Hall of Fame goaltender. The first-year Colorado coach made some daring moves late in the game — like pulling his goaltender with 3:01 remaining — and yet the ploy worked out.
The Minnesota Wild are in Denver, getting ready for game one of their best of seven series against Colorado Thursday night.
On April 8, the Minnesota Wild clinched a berth in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. What was yet to be determined was who their opponent in the first round would be. The thought was the Wild would face either Anaheim or St. Louis, both of whom were leading their respective divisions at the time. When the dust settled on the regular season Sunday, it was the Colorado Avalanche who turned out to be Minnesota's opponent in the first round.
Craig Smith had two goals and two assists for Nashville, and the Predators finished the season strong with a 7-3 win over the playoff-bound Minnesota Wild on Sunday night. The Wild wrapped up the first wild card spot in the Western Conference earlier in the week and already had their first-round matchup with the Colorado Avalanche set before the game, so there were few motivators other than the maintenance of health and momentum and maybe a statistical milestone or two.
Single-game tickets for the Minnesota Wild's first-round home playoff games go on sale Saturday. Tickets for all three potential home games will be available starting at 10 a.m. at the Xcel Energy Center Box Office and Ticketmaster.
The Minnesota Wild went into Tuesday night knowing they would only need one more point to clinch a playoff berth in the Western Conference. The task would not come easy as the Boston Bruins, the defending Eastern Conference champions, were in town. Fortunately for the Wild, their play-off berth was solidified before the start of the third period. The Phoenix Coyotes lost their game in overtime to the Columbus Blue Jackets 4-3.
One of the real spark plugs for the recent Wild surge is the performance of Charlie Coyle, who is the poster child for the development of the younger players on this team.
Charlie Coyle scored in the second period and Ilya Bryzgalov made 24 saves as the Minnesota Wild defeated the Winnipeg Jets 1-0 on Monday night. Coyle's one-timer off a pass from Zach Parise at 1:05 of the second came just after a penalty to Winnipeg defenseman Mark Stuart had expired.
Cody McCormick had a goal and an assist and Ilya Bryzgalov stopped all 20 shots he faced as the Minnesota Wild beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-0 Saturday night. Erik Haula, Mikko Koivu, and Stephane Veilleux also scored for the Wild, who maintained a five-point cushion over Dallas for the seventh playoff spot in the Western Conference.
The Minnesota Wild have recalled goalie John Curry and forward Jake Dowell from the AHL. The 30-year-old Curry is 7-9-2 with a 2.62 goals against average and .920 save percentage this season for the Iowa Wild.
The Minnesota Wild signed college free agent defenseman Christian Folin to a two-year, entry-level contract. Folin ended his career with Massachusetts-Lowell, finishing his sophomore season with four goals and 16 assists in 41 games.
Matt Moulson and Mikko Koivu scored 62 seconds apart early in the third period, and Zach Parise connected during a power play for the Wild, who snapped the Kings' six-game winning streak with a 3-2 victory on Monday night.
The Minnesota Wild were reeling. The Phoenix Coyotes were rolling. Then the teams met Saturday night and everything turned around. Zach Parise scored two of Minnesota's three third-period goals and the Wild rallied to beat the Coyotes 3-1 on Saturday night in a game with important playoff implications.
On Wednesday, the Minnesota Wild played their final home game against the Vancouver Canucks before starting a four game road trip. With games coming against St. Louis, Phoenix, Los Angeles and Chicago it was important to get two points against a Vancouver team that had been imploding over the last couple months.
David Booth scored two unassisted goals and Eddie Lack made 29 saves to lead the Vancouver Canucks over the Minnesota Wild 5-2 on Wednesday night. Zack Kassian, Daniel Sedin and Ryan Kesler also scored for Vancouver as the Canucks try to make a late push to overtake Phoenix and Dallas for the Western Conference's final wild-card playoff spot.
Minnesota Wild goalie Niklas Backstrom and forward Jason Zucker had surgery this week to address injuries that ended their seasons. The Wild announced Wednesday that Backstrom had surgery in Philadelphia on Tuesday on a core muscle injury. The injury bothered Backstrom for much of the season. He went 5-11-2 with a 3.02 goals-against average and .899 save percentage. He has not played since Jan. 30. The team says it expects him to be fully recovered in time for next season.
Matt Moulson's goal at 2:15 of overtime gave the Minnesota Wild a 4-3 come-from-behind win over the Detroit Red Wings on Sunday night. Charlie Coyle had a goal and an assist and Jason Pominville and Zach Parise also scored for Minnesota. Ryan Suter had two assists and Ilya Bryzgalov stopped 13 shots.
Andy Greene scored from in close 2 minutes into overtime and the Devils snapped a three-game losing streak with a 4-3 victory over the Minnesota Wild on Thursday night in Zach Parise's first game back in New Jersey against his former teammates. Adam Henrique and Patrik Elias each had three assists and combined to set up the game-winner for New Jersey, which blew a two-goal third-period lead. Michael Ryder, Mark Fayne and Jaromir Jagr also scored for New Jersey, which played with a lot more energy with their playoff hopes fading in the wake of the losing streak.
It was a playoff-like atmosphere for the Minnesota Wild Thursday night with the New York Rangers in town, and the Wild ended a three-game winless skid with a 2-1 victory over the Rangers.
Avery Peterson of Grand Rapids is the Minnesota Associated Press Player of the Year for high school boys hockey. The award and the AP all-state team were announced on Monday.
Not even some inside information from Olympic teammate Zach Parise could stop T.J. Oshie in a shootout. Oshie and Alexander Steen scored shootout goals and the St. Louis Blues took over the top spot in the NHL standings with a 3-2 win over the Minnesota Wild on Sunday night.
Going into the NHL trade deadline, the Minnesota Wild weren't thought to be very active. Holding on to the first wild-card seed in the Western Conference, Minnesota should be a playoff team if they continue to play as they have since Jan. 1. If anything, the thought was the Wild would address the goal-tending situation and that would probably be it. Minnesota did that and then some. The Wild made two trades at the deadline, getting Ilya Bryzgalov from Edmonton and acquiring Matt Moulson and Cody McCormick from Buffalo.
