ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - They don't play the offence-friendly NHL all-star game in October, but for a few of the Nashville Predators, it's starting to feel that way.
The Predators have surrendered 14 goals in their first two games and are 0-2-0 after their 6-5 loss to the Minnesota Wild on Saturday night.
"We've got 11 goals in the two games and don't have a point to show for it. That's bothersome," Predators coach Barry Trotz said.
Coupled with Thursday's 8-6 loss to Chicago, his team set a franchise record for most goals allowed in consecutive games.
"We lost the special teams war again," Trotz said.
The Wild's power play is downright lethal. Two games into the season, that much is known.
The Wild proved it in the preseason when it scored 12 of its 18 goals on the power play. And it showed it again in Saturday's 6-5 victory over Nashville when it tied a franchise record with five power-play goals.
But there's another area where Predators coach Barry Trotz thinks the suddenly offensive-minded Wild will drive opponents crazy.
Manny Fernandez was philosophical Monday about coach Jacques Lemaire's yanking him from the net after one period of the Wild's 6-5 victory over Nashville two days earlier.
"The fans got to see both goalies for the price of one, and we still got the two points," he said. "Jacques is a miracle worker."
Wryness aside, Fernandez is eager to redeem himself tonight against the Vancouver Canucks after a sloppy game against the Predators. He yielded three goals on his first six shots, was generous with his rebounds and turned over the puck, leading to a short-handed goal. He has stopped 37 of 42 shots (88.1 percent) in two starts.
"I've got to get back on my game," Fernandez said. "Whatever else happened, that's out of the way. It's about getting back on the horse and riding that thing again."
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - Manny Fernandez made 30 saves, and Petteri Nummelin beat Roberto Luongo with a nifty double-move backhander in the shootout to give the Minnesota Wild a 2-1 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday night.
Fernandez stopped two of the four shots he faced in the shootout, and the Wild made Luongo look silly after he was stellar in regulation.
Luongo made 35 saves before the tiebreaker, including a brilliant game-saving stop on a breakaway by Todd White in overtime.
But Mikko Koivu beat him in the second round of the shootout, and after Jan Bulis fired a shot into Fernandez's pads, Nummelin came in slowly, hesitated and lifted a backhander over Luongo's glove to win it.
Luongo saved just one of four shots in the shootout, while Markus Naslund and Brendan Morrison scored for the Canucks.
These teams have forged quite a rivalry the past few years, especially after the upstart Wild beat the heavily favored Canucks in the second round of the 2003 playoffs en route to a stunning run to the Western Conference finals.
But the Canucks and Wild made wholesale changes in the offseason and brought entirely new looks into the Xcel Energy Center on Tuesday night.
Vancouver got rid of agitators Todd Bertuzzi and Jarkko Ruutu, two of the biggest targets for Xcel angst, let Ed Jovanovski leave in free agency and replaced hard-nosed coach Marc Crawford with Alain Vigneault.
The Minnesota Wild announced Wednesday that club has signed head coach Jacques Lemaire to a multi-year contract extension.
"Jacques continues to be the consummate teacher and leader, and his ability to adapt - to new players and to an evolving league - reinforced to Jacques and to the organization that the time was right to extend his relationship with the team," said President and General Manager Doug Risebrough in a statement. "Jacques is the right person for this job, a statement as true today as it was the day he was hired."
Manny Fernandez has been named the NHL.com first star for last night, October 10/2006. He had one goal against and thirty one saves in a win against the Canucks. This gave him a .968 save percentage on the game.
Yeah, I saw the game. Manny played great, so did Louie, neither team is what I would call "loaded" offensively but that doesn't take away from goalies performace.
Minny sure is a great hockey city though. If I heard correctly, the Wild have the best selling jersey in the league. This despite them being really ugly.
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - Mikko Koivu scored the only goal in the shootout, leading the undefeated Minnesota Wild to a 3-2 victory over the Washington Capitals on Thursday night.
Off to their best start in the franchise's six-year history, the Wild have won each of their four games by one goal - two by shootout, one in overtime and one with a late comeback.
Minnesota's Manny Fernandez rebounded from a rough first period and stopped Alexander Ovechkin, Alexander Semin and Richard Zednik with tough saves in the shootout.
Kim Johnsson scored two power-play goals for the Wild, who have never lost at home to the Capitals in four meetings.
It was a chippy game, featuring frequent stares, shoves and glares between enforcers Derek Boogaard and Donald Brashear and a whole lot of penalties.
But fans were treated to a thriller at the end, once the five-minute overtime ended without a score.
The nifty manoeuvre by Koivu, who diverted from his usual backhand move and went left to sneak in the winner, ruined a solid performance by goalie Brent Johnson.
With his toe, Johnson kicked away a rebound try by Marian Gaborik late in the third period. The Wild had a four-on-three advantage with 1:49 remaining in regulation, too, and Capitals defenceman Ben Clymer was helpless with a broken stick for a brief portion of that. But Johnson turned away several slap shots in that situation, and in overtime he gloved a riser fired by Nick Schultz with 32 seconds remaining.
Semin and Dainius Zubrus each scored for Washington, which was playing for the first time in five days.
Ovechkin, last season's rookie of the year, had a relatively quiet night, save for the second assist on the goal by Zubrus.
His fellow countryman with the same first name, however, continued his fast start. Semin, who returned to the Capitals this year after spending the past two seasons in the Russian Super League, moved into the NHL lead with his fifth goal - a high shot through man-advantage traffic that gave Washington a 2-1 lead late in the first period.
Every day he goes to practice he's excited, happy.
There is joy. This is Jacques Lemaire's word. The only coach the Wild has had sees hard work, talent, an upside for his team. So how could he walk away?
He couldn't. Which is why, once Lemaire and Wild president and general manager Doug Risebrough sat down and talked, it took almost no time to ensure Lemaire would be around for a long time.
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - Minnesota Wild forward Pascal Dupuis will be out four to six weeks with a sprained left knee.
Dupuis was hurt in the first period of Thursday's game against Washington when he collided with Capitals defenceman Steve Eminger. Dupuis left the ice immediately and limped to the training room.
Dupuis, in his fifth year with the Wild, had 10 goals and 16 assists in 67 games last season. The team said it would not make a corresponding move and go with 21 players for the time being.
Articles for 06/07 Season
Rolston scores late winner for Wild
Linear Mode
