National Hockey League Special Report – Minnesota Wild surprise everyone with a clean sheet 4-0 win against the league leaders Vancouver Canucks
The second game of the Sunday saw the league leaders in action as they were hosted by the Minnesota. The match was played at the Xcel Energy Centre and was the 673rd game of the 2010 Compuware NHL Premiere Series with both teams playing the 45th
game of the season. An attendance of around 18,500 was observed which witnessed the home team thrash the league leaders 4-0.
Anton Khudobin, goal keeper of the Minnesota Wild was named player of the game for the 32 saves he made out of 32 shots fired at his goal.
Vancouver Canucks made a brilliant start to the match with the strong offence which has scored goal game after game. There were several chances at the start of the match but the Canucks failed to capitalize and the score was level.
On the other hand, Minnesota Wild was able to match the game of the Vancouver Canucks and comprehensive beat them if we talk about passing and play making. However, the Vancouver Canuck’s defence was able to deal with that.
With the passage of time attacks started to increase and intensify. Shots were fired from everywhere on the pitch but unfortunately no goals were scored and the period ended with the scores level on 0-0. During the course of the period Vancouver Canucks
made 7 goal attempts while the Minnesota Wild made 11 goal attempts.
The second period saw both teams continuing with the attacking mentality. There were chances for both teams right from the start of the period but it was Minnesota Wild who scored to break the deadlock and get into the lead.
The goal took four minutes of the second period to be scored by Andrew Brunette’s spectacular backhand shot. The goal didn’t prohibit the teams from attacking as a result chances kept on keeping. Once again it was Minnesota Wild who scored to double their
lead. The goal was scored by Martin Havlat from a brilliant flick shot in the 12th minute.
The period saw both teams making 10 goal attempts each during the course of the period with the Minnesota Wild leading 2-0 going into the break.
The final period was expected to be a very tight 20 minutes of play. Vancouver Canucks dominated possession and their passing was brilliant. It didn’t take long for Canucks to get past the defence but they kept on missing chance after chance.
However, Minnesota Wild caught them on a counter attack in the 4th minute to score once again with the goal scored by Matt Cullen from a brilliant strike. John Madden sealed the deal for the Minnesota Wild scoring once again in the 10th
minute through a brilliant shot.
The period and the match ended with Minnesota Wild emerging 4-0 victors of the match. During the course of the period Minnesota Wild made just 6 goal attempts while the Vancouver Canucks made 15 goal attempts.
"We're a strange team, there's no doubt about it, Brunette said. "You never know what's going to show up."
"There's a lot of good teams out there, and this is one of them," Canucks winger Mikael Samuelsson said talking about Minnesota Wild.
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