Burns Appears To Beat Sweden, Doesn’t Get Credit

Team Canada remained undefeated at the World Championships yesterday with a 3-2 win over Sweden. Brent Burns appeared to tally the game-winner, although Rick Nash was given credit for the tip in. Judge for yourself by watching the replay here, but I never saw Nash get any piece of the shot.

Canada is now playing Russia in a quarterfinal matchup with the score tied at 0-0 early. The United States is also in action, taking on Martin Havlat, Marek Zidlicky and the Czech Republic. That game is also tied up at 0-0 early on.

You still have time to make the trek East on 94 to get to Milwaukee for the opening puck drop of tonight’s Game 7 matchup between the Aeros and Admirals. Look for a big night from Casey Wellman. He scores two tonight, including the game-winner and the Aeros move on to face the Hamilton Bulldogs, who won their Game 7 last night against the Manitoba Moose.

Wild World Championship Update

Last week, Dennis Endras started things off the right way for players with Wild ties at the IIHF World Championship. He posted a shut out of Russia in the opening game of the tournament. He appeared to set the tone for some other players of interest to Wild fans.

Mikael Granlund has had himself a nice showing through two games in helping Finland go 2-0. The 2010 first round pick tallied a power play goal in a 5-1 win over Denmark, becoming the first Team Finland player born in the 1990’s to register a goal in World Championship competition. In a 3-2 shootout win over Latvia, Granlund picked up assists on both regulation goals and would have been Finland’s final shooter in the shootout if not for Mikko Koivu sealing the win with his patented backhand roof shot on the glove hand side. Koivu also has an assist through two games.

Finland’s next opponent will be the Czech Republic, which is also 2-0 thus far.  Martin Havlat is tied for the team lead in scoring with a goal and two assists, while Marek Zidlicky has one helper.

Brent Burns and Cal Clutterbuck each have a point for undefeated Team Canada, with Burns notching a goal and Clutterbuck assisting on a Travis Zajac tally in a 9-1 rout of France. Canada is currently trailing Switzerland, 1-0 in the final game of pool play.

Clutterbuck And Burns To Represent Team Canada

It was announced on Wednesday that the Wild will have two representatives on Team Canada at this year’s IIHF World Championship, which begins April 29 in Slovakia. It will be the third World Championship appearance for Burns and the first for Clutterbuck.

Burns and Clutterbuck will be considered veterans on a roster stacked with young talent including: Matt Duchene, Jordan Eberle, Evander Kane, Jeff Skinner, Chris Stewart and John Tavares. The unquestioned stars of the team will be Rick Nash and Dion Phaneuf on defense.

Team Finland has yet to announce its roster, but it’s expected that Mikko Koivu will be on the roster.

Team USA released the names of the first 16 players on the roster, and it features three Minnesotans. Defenseman Mark Stuart (Rochester) will be joined by forwards Blake Wheeler (Minneapolis) and Chris Porter (Faribault). Former UMD Bulldog Tim Stapleton has also been named to the team.

Wild Smiles; Blueline Questions

4 p.m. Update: The Wild has indeed made a call to Houston, recalling defensemen Justin Falk and Maxim Noreau from the Aeros.

TGIF, Wild fans! Fridays are always fun, but even more so after a Wild victory.

I know I’ve spent the past few days talking about how the Wild’s barely celebrated the end of its winless streak, but the scene in the locker room today was a lot more fun. Kyle Brodziak and James Sheppard deserve gold stars for their turns at running the locker room iPod. I want to leave most of the details in the room, so I’ll just say some stellar 80’s and 90’s hits caused plenty of jokes and fun. It was great to see the guys smiling and enjoying themselves because they deserve to let off a little steam with two straight wins after such a stressful and difficult stretch which must have tested their pride.

Not much news was expected out of the Wild’s short practice at Xcel Energy Center late this morning but unfortunately, there was plenty of not-so-good surprises. Marek Zidlicky and Nick Schultz both missed the skate with injuries and Head Coach Todd Richards said afterward that they are questionable for tomorrow’s game. Cam Barker continued to practice with the team but will again be questionable to get back into the lineup. Making matters worse, Brent Burns left the ice and is now questionable for tomorrow’s game after a very innocent-looking and weird play in practice.

In a simple drill where players line up, take a pass mid-ice and go in to shoot, Burns seemed to lose his footing all alone at center ice, with one of his skates slipping out underneath him. It looked like absolutely nothing until Burns remained down on ice, stretching out his leg before skating to the bench and walking down the runway with a look of pain on his face. Unfortunately, it wasn’t an April Fool’s joke, unless Todd Richards was in on it, too, saying Burns is now a question mark for tomorrow.

With four defensemen questionable for tomorrow’s early afternoon game, the Wild is likely to recall a few blueliners from Houston. Richards said Backstrom will start against the Lightning, who clinched a playoff spot with a win against Pittsburgh yesterday, and Theodore will get the nod in Detroit Sunday. A sidenote: did you see Backs’ awesome toe save last night? You’ll want to watch it over and over.

Listen to Richards’ comments after practice in today’s Minnesota Wild PONDcast.

With tomorrow’s game six hours earlier than the typical contest, I asked Matt Cullen and Jared Spurgeon about how the change will impact their day. A 1 p.m. start means the usual morning skate won’t be an option for the players. Cullen said his day will just start earlier than normal, that he’ll stick to the same schedule and just push everything up. Cullen said he’ll get up early, try to get outside and get his body moving and will probably end up having an extra cup of coffee.

On the other hand, Jared Spurgeon plans to sleep in and try to eat as big a breakfast as possible since he won’t be having two meals before the game. However, both players were on the same page when it came to their plans for the rink.  To those two at least, it doesn’t matter when the game starts, they’ll just back track from the time of puck drop and do their typical tasks in the arena, getting to the Xcel Energy Center with the same amount of time to prepare as usual.

Glen will be back from Florida and is planning on making his return to live,  in-game commentary tomorrow, so you can count on a high level of wit returning to wild.com. No jokin’.

Have a great Friday afternoon!

Havlat, Burns Help Team Lidstrom Earn 11-10 All-Star Win

After the All-Star Fantasy Player Draft Friday and the All-Star SuperSkills competition last night, it was time for the main event this afternoon in Raleigh, N.C.

Brent Burns, Martin Havlat and the rest of Team Lidstrom topped Team Staal, 11-10. Chicago’s Patrick Sharp was named the game’s MVP after scoring one goal and two assists with a +2 rating for Team Staal.

Havlat registered three assists, two shots and 14:51 TOI on the day, though he was on the ice for even more Team Lidstrom goals. Marty played with a couple of different players, although he spent the majority of his day alongside Chicago’s Jonathan Toews and Dallas’ Loui Eriksson. He was robbed by the glove of Henrik Lundqvist with nine minutes left in the third but showed off the skills Wild fans are used to seeing as he played set-up man throughout the contest, including the empty-net goal that was ultimately the game winner.

Marty will be lucky to get out of Raleigh in one piece after chasing down Carolina’s Jeff Skinner’s breakaway attempt late in the second. 🙂 The joke all weekend is that the 18-year-old Skinner has reached Justin Bieber-status in Carolina and it certainly has seemed so in the media coverage all weekend. He might be an unbelievably talented young gun, but Marty ruined his breakaway attempt with a great backcheck.

Burns flashed his trademark grin throughout the contest and was paired on the blueline with Phoenix’s Keith Yandle. Burnsie finished the game with one assist and three shots in 18:13 TOI.

Burns was also shown in the mic’d up segments of the game, spouting some funny quips about deciding to stop forechecking and playing defense. Clearly, the VERSUS crew has been listening when we often praise Burns’ humor and personality, and it made today’s broadcast that much better.

The game itself was a back-and-forth contest between the teams with the goalies making plenty of stellar saves. The home crowd was loud early as Team Staal opened up a 4-0 lead just halfway through the first period, but Team Lidstrom fired back to take a 4-4 tie into the first intermission.

Team Staal once again grabbed the lead with two goals to start the middle frame, before Team Lidstrom used three straight markers to get its first lead of the game and go into the second intermission with a 7-6 lead.

Team Staal had another hot start to the period, gaining an 8-7 lead before Team Lidstrom made it 10-8. Team Staal cut it to 10-9 and pulled goalie Lunqvist, but Eriksson scored the empty-net goal for the eventual game winner.

It’s been a fun weekend full of enjoyable All-Star Game festivities, but I’m quite happy for the guys to get back at it tomorrow. The mandatory time away from the arena ends with the afternoon’s Wild practice, and let’s not forget, the good guys have won four of their last five and are only one point out of a playoff spot.

I’ll leave you with the official NHL shots of your Minnesota Wild All-Stars. Warning: Sunglasses might be necessary for viewing…