Wild Treat Fans to Game of Millimeters
As the eighth and final seed in the West half of the National Hockey League’s entries in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Minnesota Wild didn’t figure to be a real threat to the No. 1 seeded Dallas Stars. But regardless of what the cynics and doomsayers might say, once the Wild get into the playoffs, they are certain to leave their fans with enough material to talk hockey all summer while awaiting another season to start.
That’s the way it went, right down to the final second in Game 6 last Sunday when the Wild finally left the Xcel Center ice after a 5-4 loss to the relieved Stars.
A lot of crazy things happened before it was over, but two amazing situations in the final 34 seconds perfectly described how close Minnesota was to pulling off the massive upset and at least getting a shot at Game 7.
First, the Wild didn’t seem to deserve to make a run at the Stars, because after a stirring rally to end Game 5 with Captain Mikko Koivu scoring the tying goal with 3:09 remaining and then deflecting in Ryan Suter’s point shot for the winning goal at 4:55 of overtime, they came home to St. Paul and simply didn’t function.
It was a Sunday afternoon affair, preceded by an emotional tribute to Twin Cities musical phenom Prince, who died suddenly two days earlier. Xcel Center was bathed in purple lights, and while a picture of Prince was displayed on the big center screen, his hit song “1999” greeted the teams as they hit the ice for warm-ups.
Then the Wild stood around for the entire first period while Dallas built a 3-0 lead on goals by John Klingberg, Jason Speza and Patrick Sharp, and made it 4-0 on Jamie Benn’s goal in the final minute of the second period, when again the Wild reduced their largest crowd of the season – 19,310 – in total silence, with nothing to cheer about.
Strangely enough, it was the defense that supplied the Wild offense when Jared Spurgeon scored a power-play goal at 3:48 of the third, and Jonas Brodin scored with a backhander after Erik Haula’ setup just 16 seconds later. At 4-2, the crowd came to life and spent the rest of the final period standing and screaming. Another power play and another Spurgeon goal cut it to 4-3 at 8:39 of the final period, but Grand Rapids native and ex-Gopher Alex Goligowski scored a weird goal at 10:28 for a 5-3 cushion.
“I don’t know what happened on that one,” said Wild goaltender Devan Dubnyk. Goligowski’s shot, off a left-corner draw, had popped up high and out of sight, landing in the crease, inches from the line. As Dubnyk searched for it, Charlie Coyle spotted it and made a dive to clear it, but as he went down, so did Dubnyk, and he inadvertently knocked it into the goal.
Still, the Wild attacked again, and Jason Pominville scored from deep on the left side with a rebound at 15:13, to draw the Wild within one goal again. Dubnyk went to the bench, and the Wild stormed Kari Lehtonen. The Stars iced the puck three or four times in the final minute, and Nico Niederreiter swatted the puck on goal.
Lehtonen went down and threw his right leg out, triggering a crazy scramble in the crease when the whistle blew with 33.9 seconds showing. The officials reviewed it over and over, and the replay showed two distinct things. First, the puck was up against Lehtonen’s leg, which was over the goal line, but the puck was shown almost over the line – tantalizingly close to the requirement of being completely over the line. There were maybe two or three millimeters of puck still on the line, so I have no quarrel with the officials saying the puck was not in.
But the second thing was something I never heard even discussed. As the puck lay there, partially in, Dallas defenseman Jason Demers spotted it in harm’s way, and blatantly made a dive to cover it. He succeeded, covering the puck to prevent it from going the last couple of millimeters to paydirt, even as Lehtonen’s leg and most of his body was shoved into the goal.
The rules state clearly that if any defensive player other than the goaltender covers the puck in the crease, a penalty shot shall be awarded. Do we think that the Wild, and their season-record crowd, might have found the way to rise above their frenzy for a penalty shot with 33.9 seconds left, and a chance to prolong their season to a Game 7?
Instead, they simply faced off again. Dallas iced it again with 13.8 seconds left, and yet again with 3.2 seconds remaining. They dropped the puck, and the Wild tried one last time. The loose puck squirted out to Mikko Koivu on the left side, and he shot. For a moment, it looked as though he was trying to beat his Finnish countryman Lehtonen with a change-up, because it was a soft shot, easily blocked, and the season ended.
In the dressing room, first I congratulated Koivu for once again supplying all of the heart, character and determination that made him such a joy to watch, and such a deserving captain. Then I said I had to ask him about that last shot.
“My stick broke as I shot,” he said softly. In this game of inches, it also ended in a montage of millimeters, questionable calls, and the untimely fracture of a $250 high-tech hockey stick.
Afterward, interim coach John Torchetti was asked about Koivu and he said his last two games showed his obvious value to the team. “And there are things nobody notices,” Torchetti added, indicating that the last time he went to Koivu for advice was with five minutes left in the game. “I said, ‘What do you think? Let’s pull the goalie right now,’ and Mikko said, ‘Oh no, we’re going to score.’ And about 20 seconds later, we did score to make it 5-4.”
Torchetti, who may not get a chance to return as full-time coach, paid a final tribute. “Mikko Koivu is our leader. And Spurgeon, what a great player,” Torchetti said. “He loves it, and he wants to be on the ice all the time, in any situation. And Ryan Suter did a great job – those are the kind of guys you want to coach.”
