Wild crush Blackhawks, Ducks win again

Just one week ago, the Minnesota Wild were reeling from eight straight losses and the firing of their head coach.

After Saturday’s practice at TCF Bank Stadium, the Wild’s first real skate on the outdoor ice sheet, players were happy to praise the way Torchetti has inspired the team out of its funk but were careful not to do it at the expense of Yeo, who led the Wild to the playoffs in three of his four full seasons as coach – and to their first playoff series victories since 2003 the past two seasons.

“What a feeling”, Haula said. “And it’s kind of given us the green light to make plays offensively, whether you’re behind the net in the offensive zone, you can make plays as long as you come back and defend”.

Ryan Carter added a fifth early in the third period, before Patrick Kane pulled one back for the Blackhawks. Erik Haula had a goal and two assists, Thomas Vanek had a goal, and Mike Reilly had an assist.

Chicago’s only reason to cheer came late in the third when Kane banked a low shot off Dubnyk’s right leg. It was Kane’s 35th goal of the season, which is tops in the Western Conference.

Kevin Hayes led the 2-on-1 with Klein after Lundqvist barely stopped a shot by Gustav Nyquist in close. It’s been the underperformance that has issue, I don’t think anybody ever said the Wild don’t have the names in the lineup to win.

Fittingly, they will face the Chicago Blackhawks, the division rival that has eliminated them from the playoffs in each of the last three years.

The timing is good because since Torchetti replaced Mike Yeo as interim coach on February 13, the Wild have won three straight and have scored five goals in each victory.

Fans brought out tennis balls, hockey sticks and even nets to have pick up games in the parking lot.

Yet, those three games were against opponents that are most likely not to make the playoffs. The Wild won 6-1. Dumba wore excessive eye black, his “inner Ray Lewis”, he said. The Chicago Blackhawks are averaging 2.9 goals per game and are scoring on 22.9 percent of their power plays. “You can certainly see why the football players get pretty fired up when they run out onto the field”, Dubnyk said.

“It’s great Minnesota finally got a game”, said Jennifer Kuhlman of Esko.

Since 2008, there have been 15 outdoor games played as part of regular season action in the National Hockey League.

He was adamant on one point, though: “I’m not trading high picks and some of our top prospects for rental players….” They were never able to get their offense going, and their defense looked absolutely frightful all night. The upper chest is the principal point of contact, Zucker’s head hits the ice on the way down. Zucker needed help to shuffle off after lying still on his side for a few minutes while five members of the Wild’s medical staff examined him. Forward Jason Pominville joined the goal party with a goal to increase his goal streak to three games. Pominville has 10 goals and six assists in 20 games against the Blackhawks….

Canucks 5, Avalanche 1: VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Jannik Hansen scored twice, Ryan Miller made 37 saves and Vancouver snapped a four-game skid.