Sport-scan daily brief

The Wild got pucks deep, forechecked hard, exuded effort all over the ice, especially on four spotless penalty kills, and executed impressively from the back end.

“Nice to get back on the winning side of things,” said Pominville, who was surprised 45 minutes before warmups by his wife and two children, who drove in from Buffalo, N.Y. “Big surprise,” he said.

After a scoreless first period, the Wild dominated the second, outshooting Columbus 11-4 and drawing three power plays by using pure hustle. First, Torrey Mitchell stole a puck from Blake Comeau, who reacted by hooking Mitchell. Then Zach Parise beat out an icing en route to Mikko Koivu being tripped. Finally, Coyle skated through Vaclav Prospal’s check until the referee’s arm went up.

Suter, who topped 30 minutes of ice time for the fifth time this season, got things started by whistling a shot through traffic that beat red-hot goalie Sergei Bobrovsky.

Later in the period, Coyle had a masterpiece shift. The 21-year-old rookie, who plays a mature game and is so good along the wall, kept possession in the offensive zone with a single-man forecheck to allow a wholesale line change after Koivu dumped the puck.

Moments later, Jared Spurgeon saved the zone after a Suter shot. Devin Setoguchi found the puck and fed it across for rookie Mikael Granlund, who set up a seeing-eye, one-time tap-in by Coyle. It was Coyle’s third goal in five games and first career power-play goal.

“Granny has eyes in the back of his head,” Coyle said.

For Backstrom, the veteran was just happy the Wild got back to playing the right way and didn’t get overwhelmed by the pressure suddenly surrounding the team.

“We have to realize, we haven’t been a playoff team for [four years],” he said. “We want to be in. There’s going to be some growing pains. We have to learn from the good teams, but it’s still a process. It’s something we work on every day.”

Star Tribune LOADED: 04.08.2013

668788 Minnesota Wild

Minnesota Wild shuffle defensemen for Columbus, Marian Gaborik

By Chad Graff

Posted: 04/07/2013 12:01:00 AM CDT

Updated: 04/07/2013 12:03:13 PM CDT

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Seeking to shore up his blue line, which has struggled during the team's three-game losing streak, Minnesota Wild coach Mike Yeo has mixed up the lineup.

Contrary to the lineup the Wild used in Thursday's 3-0 loss in Los Angeles, defensemen Justin Falk and Nate Prosser will play Sunday, April 7, while Brett Clark and Tom Gilbert will watch from the press box.

Gilbert has played in all but three Wild games this season.

"Hopefully, this is something that spurs him to get it back," Yeo said earlier Sunday. "A lot of it is mental. I'm not saying he's been awful or he's the reason we lost three games, but I think it was time to make a change. Hopefully, this helps him get back on track."

The Wild need to get back on track Sunday evening. They've lost four of their last five games and are quickly losing ground in the Western Conference standings.

Minnesota takes on a re-energized Columbus team fresh off acquiring former Wild star Marian Gaborik at the trade deadline. He'll make his home debut Sunday against Minnesota.

The Wild remain without second-line energizer Matt Cullen and winger Dany Heatley.

"It can be tough," Cal Clutterbuck said of mixing lines due to injuries. "Before Cullen got hurt, we had the same lines for a while and had a little mojo going. We've got to get that back now."

Pioneer Press LOADED: 04.08.2013

668789 Minnesota Wild

Minnesota Wild sign Gophers' Erik Haula

By Chad Graff

Posted: 04/07/2013 12:01:00 AM CDT

Updated: 04/07/2013 11:55:13 AM CDT

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The Minnesota Wild have signed Gophers junior forward Erik Haula to an entry-level contract, the team announced Sunday, April 7. He will report to the American Hockey League Houston Aeros.

Haula is the fifth player to leave the University of Minnesota hockey program early since the team lost in the opening round of the NCAA tournament a week ago.

Haula served as an alternate captain for the Gophers. He led Minnesota with 51 points on 16 goals and 35 assists and recorded a plus-20 rating.

The 22-year-old was drafted by the Wild in the seventh round in 2009.

Haula stood our during the 2011 World Junior Championship while playing for Finland. He recorded seven points, including four goals, in six games.

The Aeros have seven games remaining this season, including one Sunday.

Pioneer Press LOADED: 04.08.2013

668790 Minnesota Wild

Minnesota Wild winger Dany Heatley to undergo shoulder surgery

By Chad Graff

Posted: 04/07/2013 12:01:00 AM CDT

Updated: 04/07/2013 10:59:13 PM CDT

Winger Dany Heatley will undergo arthroscopic surgery Tuesday, April 9, to repair his dislocated left shoulder, Wild coach Mike Yeo said in a text message.

"(We're) hoping it won't be too long," Yeo said regarding the time Heatley will miss.

Heatley suffered the injury Wednesday in San Jose in an altercation with Marc-Edouard Vlasic just after the game ended.

Vlasic was fined but not suspended for the incident.

Pioneer Press LOADED: 04.08.2013

668791 Minnesota Wild

Wild 3, Blue Jackets 0: Minnesota ends three-game skid

By Chad Graff

Posted: 04/07/2013 12:01:00 AM CDT

Updated: 04/07/2013 08:27:14 PM CDT

RECAP: The Wild scored two power-play goals and Niklas Backstrom stopped all 24 shots he faced as Minnesota cruised to its first victory in four games.

Mikael Granlund fed a beautiful cross-ice pass from the point to Charlie Coyle at the far post for the Wild's second goal after Ryan Suter fired home a wrister from the point to get the scoring started.

Jason Pominville netted his first goal as a member of the Wild, tapping in a pass from Zach Parise.

MEANING: The losing streak is over. After dropping three straight games and four of five, the Wild head back for a three-game homestand in St. Paul with a much-needed two points.

ETC: Suter has 20 points in 21 games. ... Coyle's power-play goal was his first of the season and third goal in five games. ... The Wild are now 14-4-0 when scoring the game's first goal.

UP NEXT: vs. Chicago, 7 p.m. Tuesday, NBCSN

Pioneer Press LOADED: 04.08.2013

668792 Montreal Canadiens

Dave Stubbs: Habs' Eller tugs on Chara’s cape

By Dave Stubbs

The Gazette

April 7, 2013

MONTREAL — Canadiens centreman Lars Eller did 28 National Hockey League teams a great service on Saturday night: he demonstrated how to get supersized Boston Bruins captain Zdeno Chara off his skates.

Eller showed it isn’t by taking broadside runs at Chara from 20 feet away. It’s not done by chopping at Big Zee’s ankles with your stick or by cross-checking him from behind or double-teaming him in the corner or hooking him or slipping your blade between his blade and boot and giving him the heave-ho — or even by hitting him in the sternum with a rocket-launched missile.

No, Eller showed that to topple Chara, you take his jersey, just below his No. 33, between your gloved thumb and forefinger, give it a gentle tug and boom! He’s down.

As easy as that.

“I must be really strong,” Eller joked after the Canadiens’ 2-1 Bell Centre victory over the Bruins.

And then, with mischief: “Or are we going to use the ‘e’ word?”

Canadiens-Bruins games of recent vintage have been all about charges of embellishment, mostly by Bruins players and their head coach, Claude Julien, their broadcast crew, and their fans who claim the Habs dive faster than a nuclear-powered submarine.

(If, say, Habs defenceman P.K. Subban had hit the deck à la Chara on a similar jersey-tug Saturday, Bruins fans would have spontaneously combusted.)

But the “e” word for the Canadiens on this night, the victory giving them a three-point lead on the Bruins in the Northeast Division, was “excellence.”

Eller’s penalty for holding, a weak call at best, gave the visitors a 6-on-4 power-play for the game’s final 56.4 seconds, goaltender Tuukka Rask pulled for an extra skater.

Boston made 21 passes with the two-man advantage yet didn’t get a single shot on goal, Bruins’ David Krejci blaming that on the Bell Centre’s “(expletive) ice.”

Presumably, the Canadiens’ ferocious, smothering penalty-kill unit of Tomas Plekanec, Travis Moen, Josh Gorges and Andrei Markov had nothing to do with it.

And the ice, apparently, was crappy only in the Habs’ end.

Krejci’s veteran teammate, Jaromir Jagr, had another idea about the Bruins’ final-minute failure: he said he himself lost track of the ticks remaining on the clock, making his team’s final pass instead of shooting as time expired.

Joking aside, Eller took responsibility for his penalty.

“It was probably fair enough,” he said of the call, made when Chara went down a split second after Eller had let go of the Size Gigantic jersey. “I shouldn’t have put myself in that position.

“I’ve never seen the clock go so slow,” Eller added of his time in the sin bin, the Bruins doing more cycling than the Tour de France before the siren sounded.

“The guys played unbelievable (on the penalty kill) so I’m really grateful for that. I was pretty relieved when it was over.”

Centring Alex Galchenyuk and Brandon Prust on an unlikely line that was quite terrific, Eller was a time bomb all night, his two shots taken over 16:10 hardly indicative of his contribution.

Eller played a role setting up the industrious goal of Galchenyuk to open the scoring, though he didn’t earn an assist, and used his lockout-developed power to win many battles for the puck.

“We were creating a lot of chances tonight,” Eller said of his line. “We were in their end, cycling well, using each other. That’s how we need to play and we’ll score goals like we did tonight. And we could have scored a couple more. …

“Sometimes, it’s not the line combinations that you think of that are going to work. Sometimes, you just get that instant chemistry. When we’re put together, you don’t know if it’s going to be for one or two games or 20 or 30.

“You try to make the best of it. We’ve found some good connection in understanding each other and using each other to our strengths. We’ll keep doing that.”

The game marked the welcome return of Canadiens centre Tomas Plekanec, back from one game nursing a groin injury. He played a forwards-high 20:29 and reported feeling 100 per cent.

Asked whether Eller had discovered an almost superhuman strength to flatten Chara, Plekanec paused, then said with a tight grin: “Maybe … uh … you know what? I don’t know. I won’t go there.”

Goaltender Carey Price turned in a strong 26-save performance and probably was as surprised as anyone that he didn’t touch a puck on the Bruins’ last-minute power-play.

This wasn’t the typical Canadiens-Bruins alley fight. Canadiens research manager Carl Lavigne dug back to Dec. 20, 2001, to find the last time these two clubs earned only eight combined penalty minutes, a 5-0 Bruins rout in Boston with the winners scoring three first-period goals in a 52-second span.

“It seems that it’s either/or when we play Boston — not too many penalties or line brawl after line brawl,” Eller said. “Today was one of the quiet ones. We’ll play either way, but we prefer to have our guys on the ice.”

One year ago Sunday, the Canadiens played their final game of 2011-12, long before eliminated from playoff contention. New management, headed by GM Marc Bergevin, the import of head coach Michel Therrien and new assistants, and a different attitude in the dressing room have produced a decidedly different scene this April 8.

“Michel definitely brought some accountability into the room, but I think it’s the players in this room. It’s their pride,” Eller said. “That’s the most important thing. You can change coaches and different things, but it has to come from within the room.

“Coaches hold (players) accountable, but it’s the pride of every player in here. … I don’t think we were as bad last year as the record showed, but I think we’re as good as we’re showing right now.

“It’s not a coincidence when you do it over 35 games, or a long stint,” Eller added. “We’ve had the foot on the gas from Game 1 or 2 and we’re as good as our record shows. We wanted to show that last season was not who we are, and I think we’re really showing that this year. There’s a lot to like about this team.”

Was it sweeter that Saturday’s victory was over the Bruins?

“It always is,” Eller said, smiling. “No doubt about it.”

Another gentle tug, as it were, on Boston’s cape.

Montreal Gazette LOADED: 04.08.2013

668793 Montreal Canadiens

Jack Todd: Bergevin’s best move? Therrien

By Jack Todd

Special to The Gazette

April 7, 2013

MONTREAL — Marc Bergevin is a genius. In case you had any doubts on that point, sportswriters working in both French and English hit upon the same lead after Michael Ryder’s star turn against Winnipeg last week.

All Bergevin needs to put himself in the same category as Albert Einstein is a head of bushy hair and a drooping moustache.

Who are we to argue? Bergevin seems to do no wrong. He has done three years work in the span of a few months, handled the tricky P.K. Subban situation with aplomb, drafted the most talented player in the 2012 draft in young Alex Galchenyuk and pulled off the trade of the year by prying Michael Ryder out of Dallas in exchange for the moribund Erik Cole.

But Bergevin’s most brilliant stroke may have been the one that drew the most fire at the time: the decision to recycle Michel Therrien as his coach. Today, with 10 games to play, the Canadiens still atop the division and threatening to win the Eastern Conference as legitimate contenders for Lord Stanley’s Cup, Therrien is one of the leading candidates for the Jack Adams trophy as the NHL’s best coach.

It’s a tough year in that category: there will be a sentimental outpouring for Paul MacLean, who kept the Senators afloat despite losing three all-star players in Jason Spezza, Craig Anderson and Erik Karlsson. Bruce Boudreau has pulled off a remarkable turnaround in Anaheim and had the Ducks tied with the Canadiens at 55 points going into Sunday night’s tilt against the rival Kings, Dan Bylsma has corrected the Penguins defensive deficiencies while dealing with a rash of injuries to his superstars, and Joel Quenneville has another powerhouse rolling in Chicago.

But what Therrien has accomplished is theoretically impossible: He transformed a 28th-place team into one of the league’s best with only a week of training camp to make it happen. All the other Jack Adams candidates were in place through at least part of last season, while Therrien was working part-time in the broadcast world, waiting for another chance.

That broadcast career might have derailed his second stint with the Canadiens. One of the questions in the wake of Therrien’s hiring was how he would fare with Subban. As a regular guest on the Fired Coaches Carousel on RDS, Therrien had been one of Subban’s more vocal critics — and the talented young defenceman was coming off a season during which he had frequently clashed with his coaches, especially Randy Cunneyworth and Randy Ladouceur.

The situation became even trickier when Subban was unsigned as the short season began. He and Therrien wouldn’t have even the short training camp to get to know each other and for Subban to learn Therrien’s system. To top it all off, there were rumours that Subban did not get along with his teammates.

But after Subban signed, Therrien had a chat with him and made it clear what was expected. Therrien’s message was probably not all that different from what Cunneyworth had been telling Subban — and Jacques Martin before that. He wanted P.K. to keep his game simple and to be responsible with his puck management.

Therrien got through. Subban responded brilliantly, to the point where he is now arguably the leading candidate for the Norris Trophy. He picked up two more assists against the Bruins on Saturday night, increasing his scoring lead among all defencemen. He also leads in power-play points with 21 (one ahead of teammate Andrei Markov.)

But the stat that is most certain to gladden Therrien’s heart is the one that says Subban is a plus-13 on the season. There are a number of defencemen having good campaigns, including Kris Letang, Ryan Suter, Nik Kronwall, Slava Voynov, François Beauchemin and Sergei Gonchar (who has done a terrific job filling in for the injured Erik Karlsson in Ottawa), but no one on the list is doing quite so many things as well as Subban.

Therrien’s stellar work with Subban aside, he has also done a masterful job throughout the lineup in giving his players, as he put it after that narrow 2-1 win over the Bruins on Saturday night, the best possible chance to succeed. He has given Brendan Gallagher more and more ice time as one of the strongest Calder Trophy candidates has dazzled with his speed, determination and drive to the net.

He has held Alex Galchenyuk around 10 minutes a game, easing him into the rigours of a National Hockey League schedule. (There was a great moment in the room Saturday when Bob Cole walked up to tell Galchenyuk how much he enjoyed watching the kid play. It wasn’t clear whether Galchenyuk even knew who Cole was — but it was evident that the youngster has impressed the entire hockey world.)

Therrien has handled veteran additions like Ryder and Jeff Halpern in the same way, putting them in situations where they can thrive. In a tough spot after losing hard-hitting Alex Emelin on Saturday, Therrien went to Davis Drewiske, playing the trade-deadline pickup a total of 23:50 (seven seconds more than Markov) as the Canadiens held the explosive Bruins to a single goal.

In a sense, it’s unfair to say that Bergevin recycled Therrien. Therrien recycled himself. He’s a different man and a different coach today, a far cry from the rough-hewed specimen once noted for the mustard on his tie and manners that were more suited to the “Q” than the NHL. Therrien today is a dapper, urbane, experienced head coach, as adept at handling the media as he is behind the bench.

The team Therrien has put on the ice isn’t simply a contender. These Canadiens are fun, more than any edition of the Habs I can recall since the dynasty of the 1970s. They may have precious few Flying Frenchmen on the roster, but they play the swift-skating, roadrunner style of the glory days and they play it well — so well that the Bruins through the first two periods Saturday night looked like a bunch of lumbering dinosaurs trying to catch the shifty, speedy, now-you-see-’em, now-you-don’t Canadiens.

No one knows how this magical ride will end. Therrien himself said Saturday night that this team is less “timid” and more confident than it was two months ago, but that you never want to be satisfied and that you can always get better.

He might not have the all-star roster of the Penguins, Bruins, Blackhawks or Ducks at his command, but Michel Therrien has taken a nondescript organization in a state of chaos and transformed it into an all-star team. For that feat, in my humble opinion, he deserves the Jack Adams.

And if he picks up a Stanley Cup ring to go with it, who are we to complain?

Heroes: Michael Ryder, Alex Galchenyuk, Brendan Gallagher, Josh Gorges, P.K. Subban, Carey Price, Davis Drewiske, Alex Ovechkin, Patrick Kabongo, Stephen Strasburg, Clayton Kershaw, Mariano Rivera, Wichita State, Daniel Nestor, Marc Bergevin, Michel Therrien &&&& last but not least, my alma mater for helping 7-year-old cancer patient Jack Hoffman score a 69-yard touchdown during the Huskers spring training game.

Zeros: Lance Armstrong, Ryan Braun, Milan Lucic, Nathan Horton, Don Cherry, P.J. Stock, Mike Rice, Tim Pernetti, Rutgers, Andy Enfield, Rick Pitino, the NCAA, Tiger Woods, John Farrell, Pierre Gauthier, Jeremy Jacobs, Craig Leipold, Eugene Melnyk, Gary Bettman, Claude Brochu, David Samson &&&& last but not least, Jeffrey Loria.

Montreal Gazette LOADED: 04.08.2013

668794 Montreal Canadiens

In the Habs' Room: “We played a full 60 minutes” against Bruins: Josh Gorges

By Pat Hickey

THE GAZETTE

April 7, 2013

MONTREAL — Josh Gorges says a team’s penalty-killing shouldn’t be measured by its percentage at the end of the season.

“It’s about when the opportunity comes with the game on the line, does your penalty-killing unit get the job done,” Gorges said. “And we had to do that tonight. We stepped up and killed it for the last 56 seconds or whatever it was.”

The Canadiens preserved a 2-1 victory over the Boston Bruins Saturday night at the Bell Centre as Gorges, Andrei Markov, Tomas Plekanec and Travis Moen combined to negate a 6-on-4 advantage.

Lars Eller became entangled with Zdeno Chara and was called for holding with 56.4 seconds showing on the clock. It was a penalty, but after the hulking Chara fell to the ice, Eller couldn’t resist bringing up Boston coach Claude Julien’s comments earlier this season about the Canadiens’ embellishing penalty calls.

“I must be really strong,” said Eller, who gives away seven inches and 46 pounds to Chara. “Can we say the E-word? But I shouldn’t have put myself in that position.”

The Canadiens received some help in killing the penalty because the Bruins were reluctant to shoot the puck and let time run out without taking a shot.

Some of that was due to the Canadiens’ pressure on the puck. A renewed aggressiveness has transformed the Montreal penalty-killing unit from one of the worst in the league to one of the best. The Canadiens haven’t allowed a power-play goal in their last five games and have killed 18 of 19 penalties over the last eight games.

“It’s something we had to address,” said Gorges. “I think the addition of Jeff (Halpern) has helped out and we’ve tried to simplify our approach. We stress the importance of individual details, being hard on pucks and battling. We’ve done that as of late.”

The win gave the Canadiens a 3-1 edge in the season series against the Bruins and Gorges said this was the Canadiens’ best game against the Bruins.

“It’s a good hockey team and they’re not going to do down lightly,” he said. “But we held our ground and we stayed strong. We played a full 60 minutes tonight and we haven’t done that before.”

The victory was even more impressive because Alexei Emelin left the game with a knee injury midway through the first period and the Canadiens played with five defencemen.

“It’s almost easier,” said Gorges. “You just go out and play. You don’t have time to think about how tired you are. It’s get a quick breather, grab some water and get get back out there. We did a good job of keeping it simple. We didn’t overextend ourselves and take that extra 10 or 15 seconds. We had short shifts and kept ourselves fresh.”

Emelin was injured when he lined up a hard-charging Milan Lucic for a check along the boards. This was a question of an irresistible force meeting an immovable object and the irresistible force winning. Emelin needed help to leave the ice and the Canadiens called up Nathan Beaulieu from the American Hockey League’s Hamilton Bulldogs on Sunday to replace him in the lineup.

“We all know he’s a big hitter and he’s really strong on his skates,” Lucic said. “When you’ve got two guys like that going at each other with a lot of speed, sometimes things like that are going to happen.

Carey Price picked up his first win of the season against Boston as he stopped 26 pucks. The one that got away was Daniel Paille’s deflection of Johnny Boychuk’s point shot at 7:10 of the second after the Canadiens had taken a 2-0 lead.

“It hit something, and I lost sight of it, and it found a corner,” said Price. “It was that kind of night. The goals were playoff goals, lucky goals. We got two lucky ones and they got one.”