NHL Updates – Minnesota Wild win 6-5 against the Phoenix Coyotes after overtime
Phoenix Coyotes versus the Minnesota Wild was the 578th game of the 2010 Compuware NHL Premiere Series. The match was played at the Xcel Energy Centre, home of the Minnesota Wild in front of around 17,000 fans with both teams playing the 38th
game of the season. The match was more like a seesaw with momentum shifting every now and then but in the end Minnesota managed to win 6-5 in overtime. Andrew Brunette was named the star selection of the match with his 2 goals and an assist.
A slow start to the match was observed as the teams sat back and enjoyed possessions. Early on shots were made from long distance with not too much of men attacking. With the passage of time, the teams settled in the game and started to attack even further.
Both teams attacked and started to come across scoring chances. However, Phoenix Coyotes struck first blood as they scored through Ray Whitney in the 14th minute from a brilliant flick shot. The home team responded to this with strong attacks
too and finally scored in the final minute to level the scores. The goal was scored by Andrew Brunette from a simple tip in shot.
The period ended with the scores level on 1-1 with Minnesota making 7 goal attempts while Coyotes made 15 goal attempts.
Minnesota Wild emerged as the dominating force in the second period coming out with an attacking mentality. Minnesota Wild scored through Andrew Brunette once again in the 10th minute to take the lead.
Minnesota Wild completed the dominating performance in the period with another goal in the 13th minute through Nick Schultz’s powerful strike.
The period ended with Minnesota Wild leading 3-1. Though Phoenix Coyotes made 10 goal attempts in the period, but all of these were from long range as Minnesota’s defence was very strong while the home team made 9 goal attempts.
The final period started with Phoenix bagging two goals in the 5th minute to level the scores and silence the home fans. The first goal was scored by Scottie Upshall while the second was scored by Keith Yandle. Minnesota scored once again through
Brent Burns to take the lead but Ed Jovanovski’s wonderful flick shot levelled the scores once again.
When Ray Whitney scored in the 18th minute, the home crowd was silence once again as they thought they had lost the game. However, the home team scored through Pierre-Marc Bouchard to level the scores much to the relief of the home team’s support.
The regulation time ended and the score was 5-5 which took the match into overtime. The home team scored in the very first minute of overtime to win the match 6-5 with the goal scored by Cam Barker from a powerful long range shot.
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