Wild seek better showing on road

Like every other team in the division, the Wild is trying to solve the disparity between success at home and struggles as visitors.

By Kent Youngblood, Star Tribune

Last update: December 21, 2006 - 10:18 PM

DETROIT - The Calgary Flames are on fire at home. On the road? Many NHL arenas have proven Flame-retardant.

It's the same all through the NHL Western Conference Northwest Division.

Edmonton is a well-oiled machine at home. Ditto with Vancouver. The Avalanche can bury you in the Rockies. The Minnesota Wild? The NHL's second-best home team, No. 28 on the road.

What we have here is a trend. And an opportunity.

Talk to members of the Wild, from head coach Jacques Lemaire on down, and they'll swear that in today's parity-riddled NHL it's harder than ever to win on the road. Nowhere is that more true than in the Northwest, where entering Thursday's games, every team had a winning record at home but no team had a winning record on the road.

And that means the team that can figure out a way to win more consistently away from home will be on the road to the playoffs. OK, so righting the ship against the Red Wings in Joe Louis Arena, where the Wild plays tonight, isn't exactly the easiest place to start. But the Wild -- loser of seven in a row on the road -- knows that winning on the road is the key to the division crown.

"Of course. That's why the last half of the season is going to be huge on the road," said center Wes Walz after practice Thursday. "If a team can play .500 [on the road], I think you're going to be 3, 4, 5 points ahead of the pack. It will be the difference in the division."

The Wild's problems on the road have been well-chronicled.

Struggling to score in 5-on-5 situations, the Wild has relied on its power play to win at home. On the road the Wild draws the third-fewest penalties and when it does converts only 10.2 percent of the time.

To Lemaire, the key to the solution is simple: effort.

"If we play as hard on the road as we do at home. ... it's a matter of time that you're going to get these wins," Lemaire said.

But Lemaire is convinced that road victories are harder to come by than even five years ago. Why?

In a game dominated more than ever by the power play, few teams execute that as well on the road as they do at home.

Parity also might be a factor. On many nights there is not a huge difference in talent level. And so, in Lemaire's opinion, the boost a team gets from the home crowd is more important than ever.

"And in the future, you know, I think it will be even tougher," Lemaire said.

He might have a point. The Northwest Division is the only one where every team sells out virtually every home game. So, every night the home team is going to get a big extra push. Maybe that's why the five teams in the Northwest have combined for 57 home victories, more than any other division.

"And these are pretty avid fans supporting their team," Wild President and General Manager Doug Risebrough said, noting that three of the five teams are Canadian.

Perhaps getting used to that help at home makes it harder to win without it.

Whatever it takes, the Wild needs to learn how to win away from Xcel Energy Center.

"I think the way to do it is to play as a group in the offensive end," Brian Rolston said. "When we get everyone involved -- wingers, centermen, defensemen -- it will make a difference. We can't give up stupid chances, but we have to all get involved in their end and it will give us more 5-on-5 goals."

Walz said he hopes the Wild can build on the way it played in Vancouver on Saturday. Though the team lost 2-1, it played well enough to win.

"It's up to us to control how we play," Walz said. "If we play on the road the way we played [in Vancouver], we'll always have a chance to win."

And the team will have a very good chance at the playoffs. Because remember: Only three of the 16 teams that made the playoffs last season had losing road records.

Kent Youngblood • kyoungblood@startribune.com

Recent Minnesota Wild stories

Wild slow to stir from two-period sleepwalk - December 21, 2006

Niklas Backstrom and Vancouver's Mason Raymond

Wild slow to stir from two-period sleepwalk - After a pair of inspired victories, the team stumbled against its division rival, and tried to recover when it was too late. More