GDT 12/5 Wild @ Predators

I was able to find the whole team! lol

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Is it insane to get picky in the middle of a four-game Minnesota Wild win streak? Yes, probably, considering a four-game run seemed like a pipe dream one month ago. But, could we maybe, just maybe, see the Wild roll to a 5-0 trouncing of a team? And while we’re begging, can we also choose for the Wild to score the first goal tonight? The last two weeks certainly have been fun, but how many more of these come-from-behinds can our hearts take?

The tickers got a workout last night as the Wild fell behind the Anaheim Ducks by a 4-2 score in the third period. It was Minnesota’s top line to the rescue as Mikko Koivu and Antti Miettinen each scored two goals, and Andrew Brunette assisted on three of them. Miettinen then scored in a shootout, can Guillaume Latendresse ended a 5-4 shootout victory by converting in the fourth round.

The Wild will aim for a fifth straight win as it kicks off a five-game road trip with the Nashville Predators tonight. The Predators are coming off a 4-1 win over the Chicago Blackhawks. Dan Hamhuis, Martin Erat, Jordin Tootoo and Joel Ward all scored for the Predators, and Dan Ellis stopped 34 of 35 shots.

Broadcast Information

Wild at Predators will be broadcast locally in high definition on Fox Sports North at 7:00 PM. The game can be heard on WCCO Radio 830 AM, or online at Wild.com.

Click here to receive Minnesota Wild broadcast alerts/game day previews each Wild Game day

If You’re Going

The Predators will be conducting their Toys For Tots campaign tonight. All fans that bring a toy will receive a discount voucher for a future Predators game.

Meet The Preds

Not much has changed since the last time these two teams met three days ago. Nashville still hasn’t traded Wild killer Steve Sullivan, who picked up four points (1-3=4) at the Xcel Energy Center on Wednesday. Sullivan now has 25 points (9-16=24) in 25 career games against Minnesota. Paired with Jason Arnott, the two savvy vets have been rolling with 16 points each, and Arnott, already with nine tallies, is well on his way to another 20-goal season.

Who’s Hot?

His whole line has been tearing it up, but lately, it’s Miettinen’s world and we’re just trying to get one last look at his beautiful blond Mo-vember mustache. With his two goals last night, Miettinen now has five goals in his last five games. Since returning from the H1N1 virus, “Mittens” has played two games and notched three goals and an assist.

Tonight’s Storyline

Kim Johnsson will skate in his 700th career NHL game tonight. Johnsson is the 23rd Swede to play in 700 NHL games and the 10th Swedish defenseman to accomplish the feat. Johnsson’s 271 career points (62-209=271) rank ninth all-time among Swedish blueliners.

Keep An Eye On

Tonight will be Greg Zanon’s first return to his former home arena. The rugged defenseman, who is quickly endearing himself to Wild fans with his heady play, played 230 games with the Predators before moving to his wife’s home state and signing with Minnesota as a free agent this past summer. Zanon fell just 28 seconds short of logging 30 minutes of ice time in last night’s win.

Probable Wild Line Combos

There’s no word yet as to whether or not James Sheppard will get back into the lineup, or if Derek Boogaard may have a chance at another dance with Wade Belak:

Brunette-Koivu-Miettinen
Nolan-Belanger-Kobasew
Latendresse-Brodziak-Clutterbuck
Havlat-Ebbett-Boogaard

Probable Defensive Pairings

Indications are that Jaime Sifers will come back to the lineup in place of John Scott:

Zanon-Zidlicky
Schultz-Johnsson
Hnidy-Sifers

Between The Pipes

With it being the second of back-to-back games, it’s a near guarantee that Josh Harding will get the start tonight. Harding has been very good in his last two starts.

View From The Press Box

The early reports are that it will be Sheppard and Scott sitting this one out tonight.

The Infirmary

Other than Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Brent Burns and Petr Sykora being out with concussions, the Wild avoided the injury bug last night.

Richards’ Quote of the Day

“I believe the players think they can score goals now.”

-- Todd Richards on how his team has been able to overcome deficits and pull out wins in the past month.

Honorary State of Hockey Residents

LW Joel Ward broke into the NHL with the Wild and played 11 games in a Minnesota uniform in 2006-2007. Recently recalled RW Ryan Jones was a fourth round pick by Minnesota in the 2004 NHL Entry Draft and was eventually part of the trade that brought Marek Zidlicky to the Wild.

Worthless Stat

Minnesota has allowed four goals in each of its last three games against the Predators.

I can only say that we know there will be goals a plenty in this matchup as there normally is.

Sooooo, I feel we can do 5-0. We're hot, we've got momentum, and last night we showed we're resilient!

Wild win 5-3

Haha @ finding the whole crew.

Again, no stream for me tonight. Alas, I'll watch some Big 12 football in their country.

Good first period...even with 4 penalties we walked away with a 2-1 lead

This team is just impressing so much lately

Good to hear we're leading, I'll stop by again later to see who wins...

Unbelievable play right now..I'm speechless..

Bruno is playing like an all star...4-1 Wild

Wowzas!

what the fuck is going on? we are playing well? holy shit trade backs to Toronto keep Harding

Brunette - Koivu - Miettenin are on a different level right now

The way mittens is playing he could fetch a damn good value

Wild has scored five goals three games in a row for first time in team history. Today's the 684th game in history

Fun fact from Russo also 23 goals in last 5 games i believe which is crazy

thats all she wrote Havlat Shepp had good games as well as the new guys Lats and Ebbett, Shepp is playing in front of the net so lets hope thats a good sign from him

Nice to see Sheppard get a goal, but him and Boogaard are the ones whose spots are in jeopardy when Clutterbuck gets back in. A case could be made for Nolan, but Richards seems infatuated with him. Sifers had a giveaway on the 2nd goal for not going right up the boards, but other than that he played well, while Hnidy showed his lack of puck skills on the 3rd goal, which was a typical play by the Wild with Harding in net. Belanger showed a glimpse of skill like he does every now and then for a goal. Without a true 2nd line and a currently overachieving 1st line though it was nice to see some secondary scoring, but they aren't going to keep on scoring 5, so they need to focus on closing out games, which they did well aside from the 2 gaffs that lead to goals and the shorthanded chance right before Belanger's goal, which is why you shouldn't put a forward on the point if you have a 3 goal lead in the 3rd.

Sounds like it was a fun game! Glad to hear! Usual high scoring affair though against Nashville... the Wild LOVE to score goals agains the Preds.

Yeah, but it wasn't back and forth scoring though. It didn't have that "crazy" on the edge of your seat feeling. The Wild had their feet pressed firmly on the Preds kneck for a good majority of the last 40 minutes. They simply lost their legs at the end. I think Nashville's 3rd goal was scored, because the team's mentality had already left the ice since there were a few seconds left. That needs to be fixed, and it was nice to hear Bruno being somewhat unhappy with the 3rd period. But considering it was the 2nd of a back to back, I'll give them a break.

Either way, that was some seriously unexpected #$%@!

it makes me happy thats for sure

Wild have blown out Nashville in one sided games in the past as well... didn't they have a 7-2 win against them once?

I believe I watched a 6-2 win over the preds before.

yeah last home game last season was a huge blow out over the Preds.

Me and KW were quite intoxicated at that game. Skoula was our hero.

Will the REAL Minnesota Wild please stand up...

They have come and stood up and ain't sitting down Ceh. It is the proverbial Obama style change we have been hoping for! lol

SKOULA! Miss ya buddy! Yeah, that game last year was sweet.

heh, the hockey lodge at the mall has 2 Skoula jersey's on clearance. i wanted to get them for us, but of course their idea of clearance is only 15% off.

00Xtremeninja wrote:

heh, the hockey lodge at the mall has 2 Skoula jersey's on clearance. i wanted to get them for us, but of course their idea of clearance is only 15% off.

lol, i remember i got a Clinton Portis Broncos jersey for 24.99 after the redskins got him. The same one was 119.99 originally. Canadian clearance FTW!

I say we get skoula shirts made up.

"Bring Back Skoula" they shall say. Print it.

http://mvn.com/thestateofhockeynews/2009/12/06/wild-keep-rolling-with-5-3-road-victory-over-nashville-milwaukee-admirals-manitoba-moose-musings

By Derek Felska

The best way to describe it is I got a heavy dose of the Nashville Predators organization this week. Minnesota played and defeated Nashville 3-2 in overtime on Wednesday, I attended the Milwaukee Admirals (Nashville's AHL affiliate) game Saturday and the Wild traveled to the Sommet Center to defeat the Predators once again in a decisive 5-3 rout. This is a Wild blog you say, of course it is. I certainly will talk about Minnesota's Saturday night game against the Predators but I am also going to give some mention to Milwaukee Admirals as well as Manitoba Moose which happen to be the AHL affiliate of the Vancouver Canucks and Anaheim Ducks respectively. I'll start with my discussion of the Wild / Predators game first (which I watched via my DVR after I got home).

Minnesota started the game with good energy, but had to battle lots of adversity in the form of 4 1st period penalties. This made it very difficult for the Wild to create much offense as it was so busy playing a man short. The penalties were mostly due to over-exuberance, and aggressiveness which could hardly be criticized too heavily for a team playing in the 2nd night of a back-to-back. Minnesota would give up one goal, on a totally blistered shot by Martin Erat that beat Josh Harding clean. Harding was beat on that shot but he played very well even with the Predators applying traffic near his crease. Minnesota was resilient, and despite giving up the first goal in 7 of their last 8 games the Wild would respond with a goal of their own on a nice saucer pass by Martin Havlat that was tapped out of the air by a charging Andrew Ebbett to tie the game at 1-1. The Wild were not done just yet as they found the back of the net with less than a minute left in the period, as some great hard work along the boards by Owen Nolan allowed a pass from down low reach the point to Nick Schultz who fired a shot from the point that was redirected by James Sheppard and just managed to sneak through the pads of Dan Ellis to give Minnesota a 2-1 lead going into the 2nd. (use the link for the rest of the article)