Frustrating Night As Wild Lose Parise To Injury, Game To Nashville
By: Craig Schroepfer | @CDSWCCO
Thursday night at the Xcel Energy Center marked the 10th anniversary of team captain Mikko Koivu making his NHL debut. For the Wild though, there wasn't much to celebrate.
An injury to Zach Parise early in the game caused head coach Mike Yeo to juggle his lines all night and Minnesota never could seem to get in a rhythm, losing to Nashville 3-2.
The injury to Parise came early in the first period on a hit from behind by Predators forward James Neal. Neal collided knee-on-knee with Parise, driving him awkwardly into the boards in the process.
Parise would return to finish the first period but was ruled out of the rest of the game with a lower body injury. His injury seemed to throw the Wild out of sorts.
"He's our best player," defenseman Ryan Suter said. "It definitely sucks to see your best player go down with an injury. Hopefully he is back soon."
When Suter was asked if he thought the hit by Neal was a cheap shot, Suter said it was definitely reckless.
"He was running around all night. He hit [Charlie] Coyle on a dangerous play in front of our bench. Cheap, I don't know. Reckless, yeah."
Predators forward Mike Fisher scored the first goal of the game at 16:06 in the second period, catching Minnesota on a bad line change and beating Devan Dubnyk through the five hole to give Nashville a 1-0 lead.
The Wild would answer 90 seconds later on the power play as Marco Scandella would score from inside the face-off circle, beating Nashville goaltender Pekka Rinne over the shoulder to tie the game 1-1.
But it only took Nashville 12 seconds into the third period though to regain the lead as Roman Josi scored on a wrist shot that was deflected past Dubnyk, making the score 2-1 Predators.
Minnesota would answer on the power play again at 6:51 in the third period with Matt Dumba firing a shot from the blue line, beating Rinne to tie the game 2-2.
Then again, the Predators would regain the lead for good at 14:39 in the third period on a goal that caused some controversy among the Wild bench.
Nashville forward Cody Hodgson shot the puck as he entered the offensive zone with Dubnyk making the save. However, Dubnyk appeared to be fighting the puck as he made the save. As a result the referee never blew the whistle, allowing play to continue.
The puck would trickle down Dubnyk's body and land on the ice where Hodgson followed his shot and tapped the puck into the net giving Nashville the lead for good at 3-2.
It was a play that Dubnyk thought should have been blown dead by the referee.
"His explanation was that the puck was sitting between my legs the whole time and that's why he didn't blow the whistle," Dubnyk said. "The puck was in my equipment and the only reason it came loose was because I moved because there was no whistle."
It's a frustrating way for the Wild to lose a game, especially against a division opponent.
The Parise injury seemed to throw off Minnesota for the entire game as the forwards could never get going. It remains to be seen how long Parise is out for but he is not expected to play on Saturday against Tampa Bay.