Minnesota Wild take control of Vancouver Canucks, win 5-1 -NHL Match Update
After a slow first period, the Minnesota Wild took control of the next 40 minutes and easily dominated the Vancouver Canucks to win their third straight of the 2011-2012 National Hockey League (NHL) regular season, 5-1, Thursday night, November 3, 2011,
at the Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States.
The Wild might not have been as impressing during the season start, but now, they play like a totally different team, giving new head coach, Mike Yeo, hope for a better performance as the season progresses.
"It was a matter of time", Yeo said of the offensive outburst. "We don't expect that every game, but we've been generating some chances. We haven't capitalized on them at the rate that we'd like to, but with that I think offensively we took another step
tonight. Hopefully this is a game we can build off of".
Dan Hamhuis scored the opening goal during the first period by inaugurating his own scoring record 2:20 in.
Guillaume Latendresse gave the visiting team another chance to score when he went out with a minor penalty for high sticking at the 11:20 mark, but the Wild managed to kill it off.
Latendresse came back to score the Wild’s first goal of the night and levelled the contest, while Pierre-Marc Bouchard followed with his first of the season 21 seconds later and another one by Marco Scandella with three minutes remaining to play.
"We gave them some time and space. I know they haven't scored a whole lot this year, but they have quite a few skill players and we saw tonight. They made some pretty nice plays", Vancouver goalie, Cory Schneider, said. "We just can't get caught off guard
like that".
Brad Staubitz and Aaron Volpatti fought on the ice 3:55 into the second and were awarded a major penalty for fighting.
Matt Cullen scored back-to-back during the final period to secure the match and give his team another two points, which now has them at the 4th spot in the Western Conference.
Minnesota Wild play one more game at home against the St. Louis Blues on Saturday before taking off for five straight road matchups. Canucks continue their six-game road trip against the Blues a day earlier on Friday.
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