Dallas catches Wild in spirit of giving up goals

Tony Gutierrez, Associated Press

Wild center Eric Belanger looked on as goalie Josh Harding couldn’t stop a goal by Stars center Jeff Halpern.

Minnesota tied a team record for goals allowed against the Stars, and didn't muster much offense -- 17 shots -- at the other end.

By MICHAEL RUSSO, Star Tribune

Last update: December 28, 2007 - 12:12 AM

DALLAS - The Wild spent the day after Christmas hectically running around thanks to its annual post-holiday-break travel nightmare.

Snow in the Twin Cities and a late arrival in Dallas made for even more mayhem than usual.

With so much pandemonium, it's no shock that disorder and confusion followed the Wild onto the ice Wednesday night, but there was no excuse for the 8-3 spanking it received from the Dallas Stars.

"I think it was Christmas for them, too," Wild coach Jacques Lemaire said after. "But they came to play."

One game after giving up 51 shots to Detroit, the Wild gave up eight goals -- equaling the most it has ever allowed in seven seasons (an 8-3 loss at Detroit on Nov. 16, 2001).

"They were just too fast for us," said Marian Gaborik, who was a minus-3 less than 10 minutes in.

Continued Gaborik: "They were just skating everywhere and we were just looking at them."

The Wild, winless on the road against the old North Stars since March 21, 2003, lost its seventh in a row in Texas.

Thanks to Pavol Demitra's first two-goal game since March 1, the Wild trailed only 4-3 heading into the third. But after Brenden Morrow and Mike Modano scored 14 seconds apart, the Wild ran out of gas and the Stars went for the kill during an ugly four-goal period.

Josh Harding, who had won four in a row, was in the net for all eight, but he had no chance. The Wild was an utter catastrophe. It executed mind-boggling line changes, turned the puck over and yielded six breakaways.

The Wild was outshot 33-17 (tying fewest shots of the season) against goalie Marty Turco, who was playing the puck like a grenade. The Wild has just 58 shots in the past three games.

"The game starts and as a coach, I have to change three lines because it's not working," Lemaire said. "We've got one guy that doesn't work, the other guy doesn't want to get involved, the other guy's not skating.

"Only one line worked hard and stayed together [Dominic Moore-Stephane Veilleux-Branko Radivojevic]."

Gaborik, playing his team-record 439th game and the same guy who scored five goals against the Rangers last week, was terrible for the second game in a row and blasted by Lemaire after the game. He had one shot and saw his seven-game point streak end.

Without naming Gaborik, who doesn't normally play the penalty kill but played two minutes Wednesday, Lemaire said, "When you have to put a guy on the penalty kill to make him work, there's a problem. Because if he doesn't work, it's going to be in the net."

Asked about Gaborik, Lemaire said, "You saw his game. That's it. Unfortunately he wasn't the only one. He had companions."

In the past, whenever the Wild loses, it's usually at least competitive. But fire alarms should sound by this glaring stat: Six of the Wild's past eight losses have been by three or more goals.

Fourteen Dallas players had points. Morrow and Mike Ribeiro had three. Four others had two points apiece. Virginia (Minn.) native Matt Niskanen was a plus-3, along with Jeff Halpern and Sergei Zubov (who amazingly was pointless). Brian Rolston had no shots for the Wild.

The good news is the Wild, 5-1-1 in the second of back-to-backs, gets a chance to rebound tonight in Phoenix.

"We can erase everything that happened tonight tomorrow," center Eric Belanger said.