Isles Go Wild With Fists, Minnesota Wild... With Goals

Wild 6: Islanders 2
The good thing about this game? It was entertaining until the Wild started scoring.

The bad thing? The Wild started scoring. And once they did, there really was no chance for Yann Danis or the Isles to rebound.

In the end, Marian Gaborik scored twice and had two assists for a great night, and Andy Hilbert and Bruno Gervais had the only two goals for the Islanders, who started out strong and feisty in the first but fell flat in the final forty minutes, conceding the two points to a Minnesota team who could really use them. Stuck in eleventh place in the West, they're fighting tooth and nail to stay somewhere within the playoff picture in the final ten games.

The biggest problem for the Islanders was that they focused way too much on being physical and goading the Wild, and for their rambunctiousness they took too many penalties. Minnesota scored three power play goals in this game- Antti Miettinen, Owen Nolan, and Gaborik respectively. You can also see what most of the minutes were for if you check out the game recap on the website. Here's just a taste...

1st period: Belanger, MN, holding.
Rechlicz, NYI, fighting.
Scott, MN, fighting.
Hillen, NYI, holding.
Rechlicz, NYI, holding.
Fritsche, MN, holding.
Miettinen, MN, roughing.
Comeau, NYI, roughing.

2nd period: Witt, NYI, fighting.
Sheppard, MN, fighting.
Witt, NYI, roughing.
Sheppard NYI, roughing.And so on and so forth. Not a very gentlemanly game, and the ill will spread everywhere- even to Kyle Okposo, who was livid after Miettinen pushed Blake Comeau into a door on the ice as it was being opened at the end of the first. He pulled Miettinen to the ice until the refs broke it up, and then continued yapping at Wild players. In the second, Witt and James Sheppard proceeded to mix it up for Witt's first fight in quite a while. So you can see the pattern... and unfortunately it didn't spark any offensive moxie in the Isles. As for the defense and Danis, there wasn't much positive either, leaving the overall effort lacking something to be desired. Hopefully they will be able to pick it up against Detroit tomorrow night at Joe Louis Arena. I'm not expecting a win, but it would be nice to see at least a strong effort against the President's Trophy candidates.