With Wild wingers Marian Gaborik and Stephane Veilleux back out on the ice, the Minnesota Wild beat the Edmonton Oilers 4-2. I am not sure the Wild truly deserved to win, but the Wild know how to score on Oilers goalie Dwayne Roloson. Martin Skoula (who?!), Marian Gaborik, Kurtis Foster and Mark Parrish scored for the Wild and Eric Belanger had a career-high four assists.
The Oilers outshot the Wild 40 to 25 and both Wild Goalies (Niklas Backstrom and Josh Harding) got a chance between the pipes. Lemaire pulled Backstrom after the second period and let Harding finish the game. There is plenty of speculation why the move was made:
A. perhaps because Lemaire wants to keep Backstrom healthy (Backstrom sat out due to groin injury two weeks ago)
B. perhaps to punish Backstrom for sloppy play (the goal tender let in a sloppy goal that cost the team the win the night before)
C. just to give Harding more ice time (every good NHL team has two goalies)
D. All of the above (Minnesota Wild fans know not to try and figure our Coach Lemaire)
Regardless of the way the game played out, a win means two points for the Wild. Mark Parrish summarizes the game the best...
"Our power play came up with a pair of big goals and our penalty killing was good tonight. Otherwise we just got the bounces"