2010 Compuware NHL Premiere Series – Minnesota Wild thrash Vancouver Canucks 6-2
The 76th game of the 2010 Compuware NHL Premiere Series took place when the home team, Minnesota played host to the Vancouver Canucks. The game took place at the Xcel Arena Centre past Tuesday with around 17,000 fans witnessing the match. The
Vancouver Canucks were playing in their 6th game of the season and the Minnesota Wild played their 5th game. Both teams were very attack minded teams and everyone expected this to be a very tough and goals fiesta match. It certainly met
the expectations as the Minnesota Wild emerged victors with the score 6-2.
1st Period
The away team got out of the blocks quickly and started off the proceedings with the first attack of the match. Carrying on and converting their confidence into productive results, they scored in the 1st minute to take the lead. The goal was a
result a splendid flick shot that saw the puck at the back of the net with the shot hit from 15 feet. The goal was scored by the Captain of the Vancouver Canucks, Henrik Sedin.
The Minnesota Wild responded with attacks that almost saw them scoring in the 4th minute but the goalkeeper was in the way. However, the Minnesota Wild had the momentum in their favour and they capitalized on even the tiniest of opportunities
they got in order to score.
The hard work paid as they scored in the 7th minute to level the score. The goal was scored by a splendid power shot from 52 feet by Marek Zidlicky during power play. The Minnesota Wild didn’t give the opposing team any chance to develop plays
and scored once again in the 8th minute to take the lead. The goal was scored by Guillaume Latendresse from 27 feet away from goal through some fabulous wrist work.
The Minnesota Wild completed the dominating performance of the period when they scored the 3rd goal. This time it was Cal Clutterbuck who scored the goal to establish the two-goal lead as the period ended with the score 3-1 in favour of the home
team. During the course of the period, the Minnesota scored thrice out of the 11-goal attempts and the Vancouver Canucks scored once out of the 7-goal attempts.
2nd Period
The 2nd period saw the Minnesota show no mercy to the opponent as they displayed some deadly offensive and defensive skills.
The dominating performance of this period saw them establish a 3-goal lead when John Madden’s goal took the score to 4-1. The goal was scored in the 8th minute through a splendid power hit that went flying into the goal. The Minnesota Wild bagged
another goal in the 13th minute. The goal was scored by Andrew Brunette through a quick shot during play that caught the goalkeeper by surprise.
Like the 1st period, the Minnesota Wild scored their 3rd goal of the period to take the score to 6-1. The goal was scored by Matt Cullen whose decent strike from 31 feet saw the team celebrating and sent the home fans cheering.
The score was 6-1 at the end of the 2nd period as the Minnesota Wild scored 3 goals out of the 7-goal attempts while the Vancouver Canucks didn’t score any goal out of the 11-goal attempts they made.
3rd Period
The 3rd period saw both teams come up with decent goal attempts as they fired shots at the opposing goal every now and then. During the period, the Vancouver Canucks scored a goal which was no more than just a consolation goal. The goal was scored
by Henrik Sedin in the 19th minute from 14 feet.
The period and the match ended with the score on 6-2.
At the end of the match the Minnesota Wild Head Coach, Todd Richards said, "Coming into the game I was curious as to what we were going to get, and the players, to me, made a statement and responded to the challenge we as coaches threw at them," Richards
said.
"We just kept going. We knew we had a lot in us and could play good hockey," Clutterbuck said.
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