The Minnesota Wild have not had a lot to be excited about it. Then came July 4 , 2012. That day changed the level of excitement in MN to an all new high. Those of us that combed through the internet for any scraps of information were finally rewarded with the official announcement that we got em. WE GOT EM!!! We had signed Zach Parise and Ryan Suter. I personally jumped around and screamed a lot. Happy Happy day!

BOOM! LOCKOUT. This would postpone any excitement for quite some time. I wondered would the excitement still be there when and if the season was saved. I was to find out on Jan 19, 2013.

I was quite lucky to be given 4 tickets to the game that night. I was so excited. NHL HOCKEY HOW I MISSED THEE! The Xcel was packed. The announcement came that attendance was 19,000+. That is the 6th largest in Wild’s history. You could literally feel heartbeats pounding and the excitement throughout the arena. I sat through the pre game thank yous impatiently. Let’s drop this puck. As we say before each home gane, LET’S PLAY HOCKEY!

With the announcements over, the puck was dropped and away we went. Well, we were supposed to go. Most of the first period, the boys looked lost and out of place, flat even. Colorado was playing a very physical game and steam rolling all over us.  Minutes into the game, Avs John Mitchell scored a goal. You could see the fans looking in disbelief. We were not supposed to start this way. We were outshot 12-5 in the first. My only hope was Yeo giving them a fiery talk before they came back out.

Yeo came through. A very different confident looking squad came back out onto the ice. They had finally come together playing as one unit or team which is how it should be. Wild’s Dany heatley scored 2 power play goals in the 2nd and Mikael Granlund, the finnish wonder, got his first NHL goal and received a standing ovation. The Avs pretty much just racked up penalties.

But the Avs were not done scoring. Beginning of the 3rd showed Cody McLeod get his first goal of the season assisted by ex wilder Greg Zanon. My heart was beating. Literally didn’t want to see this go to OT or a shootout. I hate shootouts. HATE THEM! I get too nervous. Well Pierre Marc Bouchard was superman and saved me from that fate by scoring off a nice play by Cal Clutterbuck. The team tried to get Dany the hattie but it was not meant to be. The wild won 4-2 and will be taking on the Dallas Stars on Sun.

Photo Credit: lauraes / flickr

The Admirals completed a sweep against the Worcester Sharks in their opening weekend of the season with a 4-3 shootout victory. It lifted the Admirals to 30 straight Regular Season wins in a row and gave them a 2-0-0 record.

The Admirals Pat Maroon [@PatMaroon] scored early in the 1st period when he tipped in a shot by Kyle Palmieri [@KylePalmieri]. Worcester answered back with a goal of their own by Yanni Gourde with 16:04 remaining in the 1st. The Sharks took the lead 2-1 with only 23 seconds remaining in the 1st period.

In the 2nd period Maroon would score his 2nd goal of the game to even things up 2-2 off an excellent pass from Devante Smith-Pelly [@smithpelly23]. DSP racked up another assist moments later setting up John Mitchell [@JohnMitchell24] for a goal, giving the Admirals back the lead 3-2.

For much of the 3rd period the score remained the same until 3:55 left when Worcester’s Matt Tennyson scored to tie the game 3-3. Game 2 gets sent to overtime where nobody would convert and the Admirals and Sharks enter a shootout to decide the victory.

Shootout Re-Cap

• Round 1 - K. Palmieri (Nor.) & J. Sheppard (Wor.) both score [1-1].
• Round 2 - P. Holland (Nor.) scores, Sharks come up empty [2-1].
• Round 3 - Nobody is able to convert, Igor Bobkov [@BigBobber91] makes a huge save and Admirals win in the shootout, completing a weekend sweep of the Worcester Sharks.

3 Stars of the Game

• Devante Smith-Pelly (Admirals)
• Matt Tennyson (Sharks)
• Pat Maroon (Admirals)

Birthday Watch: Happy Birthday to #25 Matt Smaby! (October 14th, 1984)

Photo: ivanomak / flickr

The Norfolk Admirals got the 2012-13 season started off right with a 4-2 win against the Worcester Sharks. (Note the irony that the Ducks AHL affiliate started their season against the Sharks, much like the Anaheim Ducks would have done had they been able to play.) John Mitchell [@JohnMitchell24] opened up the scoring for the Admirals just 2:07 into the game with a beautiful feed from Devante Smith-Pelly [@smithpelly23]. At the 12:47 mark of the first Peter Holland [@PeterHolland13] fired a rocket of a shot and scored unassisted to give the Admirals a 2-0 cushion.

The Admirals began the 2nd period on a power play (0:33 remained from 1st period) but they wouldn’t convert. The Sharks broke the shutout at 15:41 of the 2nd period to cut the Admirals lead in half and would score again with 1:27 left to tie the game going into the 3rd period.

Admirals would regain and ultimately maintain their lead on a Troy Bodie [@TroyBodie] goal in the 3rd and with seconds left in the game Kyle Palmieri [@kylepalmieri] would secure the first victory of the season and a record breaking 29th straight regular season win for the Admirals on an empty net goal.

3 Stars of the Game

• Troy Bodie – Admirals
• Peter Holland – Admirals
• Sebastian Stallberg – Sharks

The Admirals will get their chance at a 3oth straight regular season victory tomorrow night at 7:15pm EST against the very same Worcester Sharks.

Grab your provisions, free agency officially begins at noon today, but the general managers are already getting to work. I’ll keep this post updated as the news rolls in, so make sure to stick with us.

» Continue reading “NHL Free Agency 2012 Live Blog”