For second night in a row, Harding is superb for Wild

Mark J. Terrill, Associated Press

Minnesota's Marian Gaborik scores on Los Angeles goalie Jean-Sebastien Aubin during the first period of Saturday's NHL game.

Backup goalie Josh Harding's six-week slide has officially ended, and it's a good thing. He notched 35 saves against the Kings.

By Michael Russo, Star Tribune

Last update: December 16, 2007 - 11:28 PM

LOS ANGELES -- Josh Harding's six-week slide has officially ended, and it's a good thing.

The Wild's backup goalie, who earned starts on back-to-back nights for the first time in his career with his 28-save effort Friday at Anaheim, needed his 'A' game in a giant way Saturday night when referees Mick McGeough and Marc Joannette spent the evening one-upping each other on penalty calls.

But Harding was there every step of the way for the Wild with 35 saves during a 2-1 victory over the Los Angeles Kings at the Staples Center.

The zebras handed out 18 power plays.

In the second period alone, McGeough and Joannette called 12 penalties -- six aside. Through 40 minutes, the ugly, no-flow game featured 22 minutes, 11 seconds of even-strength time and 17 minutes, 49 seconds of power-play time.

But 13 of Harding's saves came on Kings power plays, including several brilliant ones. His shutout bid was erased with 72 seconds left when Rob Blake scored with an extra attacker.

As bad as it seems the Wild has played lately, believe it or not, it's won seven of 10 and completed a 3-2 road trip with consecutive wins. The victory also meant it took over the Northwest Division lead, although it's tied with Vancouver with 38 points.

For the Wild, Marian Gaborik and Brian Rolston each scored for the second consecutive game. Rolston scored in two games in a row for the first time since October.

Prior to the game, the Wild got caught in a bind. Derek Boogaard, who has been playing despite having a herniated disk, had his back seize up so badly in Anaheim on Friday that he had to stand on the Wild bench the entire third period.

Saturday, Matt Foy and Branko Radivojevic, the only other two Wild forwards, were sick. So coach Jacques Lemaire had to use defenseman Brent Burns, who has spent much of his career shuffling between defenseman and wing, at forward for the first time this season.

Burns was terrific. In the first period, he drew one penalty, crushed defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky and stole the puck from Jaroslav Modry, then skated around a fallen Visnovsky to create a tremendous scoring chance for himself.

On the power plays, Burns played the point and he was later moved back to the blue line in the third period.

Gaborik gave the Wild a 1-0 lead less than 4 minutes into the game when the Kings stopped skating in anticipation of an icing call.

But at the last second, the linesman waved off the icing, and Kim Johnsson hit Gaborik with a home-run pass off the side wall for a breakaway. Gaborik used his biggest weapon, the wrist shot, to blow his 12th goal by goalie Jean-Sebastien Aubin.

In 22 games vs. the Kings, Gaborik has scored 14 goals and 23 points.

From there, Harding was simply sensational. Johnsson, who had a tough period, carelessly turned the puck over for a Michal Handzus shorthanded breakaway, but Harding robbed his top-corner attempt with a Grant Fuhr-like glove.

Later on a power play, Harding made three saves, including a right skate save to stone Michael Cammeleri from the doorstep.

That gave the Wild enough of a cushion to take a 2-0 lead on Rolston's 5-on-3 rocket early in the second. He also scored on a two-man advantage in Anaheim.

From there, the period featured penalty after penalty as several players from both teams were taken out of the game.

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