Not a lot went wrong for the Wild Friday night in Anaheim. They shook off a team-wide flu epidemic, got their power play mojo working, received solid goaltending and amassed a sufficient enough lead to take the foot off the gas in the third to rest up for Saturday night's game with the Kings.
Voros capped a perfect road period in the first with his sixth goal, and then the Wild power play went berserk in the second, tallying a team-record four power play goals in one period. When it was all over, Gaborik, Belander (GWG), Rolston and Burns had each beaten a Fowl goalie.
Harding had a very strong game, including a great glove save on a breakaway in the first period, and then some fine stops in the third. The two that got past him didn't really tarnish the overall effort since the Wild really did go into prevent defense the whole period.
In a vacuum, this was a momentum-generating effort. Strong play at both ends of the ice against an able opponent. Other than the overall efficiency of the power play units, to me the biggest development was how active the defense was. Particularly Johnsson who was all over the place.
Season series:
Overall: Wild lead 2-0-0 (GF 7, GA 2)
In Minny: 0-0-0 (na, na)
In Anaheim: 2-0-0 (GF 7, GA 2)
CHICKEN LITTLE SAYS: The Fowl did get a PPG.
POLLYANNA SAYS: Now that looked like a playoff team.
BOTTOM LINE: They showed a little backbone, and took advantage of a string of penalties. Good enough.
STUD: Harding shook off a rough stretch over the last couple months with a good start that we desperately needed from our goalies.
DUD: Pretty quiet game from SRV, and he was on the ice for both Fowl goals. I don't think his spot in the lineup is so secure that he can float for entire games at a time.
NiNY
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