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VANCOUVER — It was a Good Friday for the Minnesota Wild, but not for the rest of the Northwest Division.
The Wild increased its lead in the NHL's deepest division, and its prospective hold on the third seed in the Western Conference playoffs, with a 2-1 victory over the Canucks before 18,630 at a sold-out GM Place. Vancouver would have taken ahold of first place with a win.
"This was a prime opportunity for us and we kind of let it slip away," Canucks centre Brendan Morrison said. "But I think we can't hang our heads too much after that effort. I thought we controlled the play for almost the entire night."
Minnesota now leads the Canucks, who had their three-game winning streak snapped, and Calgary Flames by three points in the standings, and owns a five-point cushion over the Colorado Avalanche. The Wild, which has notched points in seven straight games, also pulled even in the season series with Vancouver (3-3-1), which could become an important tiebreaker should the teams finish with the same amount of points and wins.
Brian Rolston celebrates his goal. (Nick Didlick/Getty Images)
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- Calgary Flames
- Colorado Avalanche
- Minnesota Wild
- Nashville Predators
- Vancouver Canucks
- Niklas Backstrom
- Pavol Demitra
- Lukas Krajicek
- Roberto Luongo
- Aaron Miller
- Willie Mitchell
- Mattias Ohlund
- Branko Radivojevic
- Mason Raymond
- Brian Rolston
Calgary officially took possession of sixth place in the conference by virtue of a game in hand, while Vancouver dropped to seventh and lost a golden opportunity to move eight points ahead of the ninth-place Nashville Predators and, effectively, secure a post-season berth. The Avalanche is eighth, two points back of their Canadian rivals.
"We have our work cut out for us, there is no question," Morrison said of catching the Wild.
If tied after 82 games, the team with the most wins would be awarded first place. If the teams had the same number of points and wins, the next tiebreaker is head-to-head record and the fourth tie-breaker is goal differential.
"When you play 82 games, then you can look back and see what happened," said Wild goaltender Niklas Backstrom, who made 30 saves.
Branko Radivojevic gave the visitors a 2-0 lead early in the third period on a perfectly executed two-on-one with Pavol Demitra. Radivojevic tipped a Demitra pass past Roberto Luongo at the goal-mouth. It was Demitra's second assist of the game.
Vancouver, which is seeking two straight division titles, sliced the margin in half three minutes after that on the power play. Sami Salo's point shot beat Backstrom to make it 2-1 with more than 15 minutes remaining.
Luongo finished with 19 saves but Backstrom was busier as the Canucks carried most of the play and finished with 31 shots. Minnesota failed to score more than three goals for a 16th straight game.
Vancouver did itself no favour by giving Minnesota nine power-play opportunities. The Canucks got three chances with the man advantage, and while each team scored one power-play goal, the home team couldn't get in a flow because it was constantly short-handed.
"It's two games in a row where we have gotten in a little bit of penalty trouble," said head coach Alain Vigneault. "Sometimes, I'm not quite sure what the gentlemen who are calling the penalties are seeing all the time, but you have to live with that and fight through that."
The Wild led 1-0 after two periods on a power-play goal by Brian Rolston. Vancouver entered the game with the best home penalty-killing unit in the league, a group that had erased 88.2 per cent of opponents' power plays, and had also killed off 15 straight penalties. But Rolston's slap shot ricocheted off Willie Mitchell in the crease to break the streak.
Vancouver is in a stretch of nine games against divisional opponents to close the season. The Canucks now embark on a three-game road trip before returning home for four contests in advance of the playoffs.
While the schedule may be kind, the Canucks are without four players for the remainder of the regular season — defencemen Mattias Ohlund, Aaron Miller and Lukas Krajicek and forward Mason Raymond — and could use some breathing room should those injuries catch up with them.
Vancouver now sets out for games in Calgary (Tuesday), Colorado (Wednesday) and Minnesota (Friday) before returning home.
"We've got a couple of days here to re-energize and re-focus," Vigneault said.
