Minnesota Wild get first win of the season
The Minnesota Wild opened their season in Helsinki, Finland where they suffered back-to-back losses to the Carolina Hurricanes. The Wild were happy to be back in North America, and playing at home, where
they handed the upstart Edmonton Oilers their first loss of the season, and collected their first win by a score of 4-2 Thursday night.
How it went down
Minnesota started the scoring in the first period with a power play goal from Antti Miettinen.
The Oilers took over early in the second and went ahead on goals from Dustin Penner and Tom Gilbert. But the Wild took advantage of their power play opportunities as captain Mikko Koivu got his first and
second of the season, both on the power play, each scored less than one minute apart.
The Wild scored all their goals on the power play going 4-for-6 with the man advantage and got their fourth midway through the third when Matt Cullen got his second of the season.
What they're saying
The main issue on everybody's mind after the game was penalties and how it was the Wild who were effective in taking advantage of having the extra attacker.
"We were standing around watching a lot of the period. But our power play stepped up and the guys that you need had the opportunities," Minnesota Wild head coach Todd Richards said. "That really switched
the momentum around and got the crowd back into the game."
"Penalty-killing starts in your own end, and there's a centre that's got to win a draw, and I had one guy over 50 percent tonight," Edmonton head coach Tom Renney said about his team's lack of discipline.
"We had a difficult time in our own end tonight for the first time in three games.
"It's about discipline. It's about avoiding the penalty box. We may have lost the game on the specialty teams tonight, but there are other things in our game that we'll continue to work on that will continue
to allow us to compete."
What it all means
After flying out of the gate with a 4-0 win against the Flames, the Oilers' hot hands have cooled a bit. They travel to Calgary to take on the Flames for the second time this season and will hope to recapture
the energy they had in their season opener.
The Wild will feel confident now that they have a first win under their belt. They will be hoping that home ice will continue to be an advantage as they host the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday night.
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