Long-awaited goal comes for Parrish

By MICHAEL RUSSO, Star Tribune

Last update: December 28, 2007 - 1:56 AM

GLENDALE, ARIZ. - Mark Parrish's nickname is "Grumpy" because he's not exactly a morning person.

Up until Thursday night, the Wild winger has been grumpy because he hadn't been scoring.

Mired in one of the longest droughts of his nine-year career, Parrish finally raised his arms to celebrate one of his own goals in Thursday's 3-2 victory over the Phoenix Coyotes, not one by one of his teammates.

Parrish, 30, has always been a streaky scorer, but his streak of zeros lasted 15 consecutive games until he scored a breakaway goal on the power play, thanks to a heads-up pass from Eric Belanger.

The goal was Parrish's 200th in the NHL, something he had been searching for since Nov. 15. If he hadn't scored Thursday, he would have equaled his longest goal drought of his career -- 16 games, set in 2000-01 with the New York Islanders.

"It's been really frustrating. It's human nature," Parrish said. "You try to put it behind you and not think about it. But your family and friends just love to talk about it. They think they're being nice by telling you you're working hard and it will come, but at the same time, it's just ticking you off more."

Over the 15-game drought, Parrish had registered only 18 shots (1.2 per game).

"I've had quite a few pretty good tips that a lot of times aren't always counted as shots and sometimes go unnoticed completely [by the off-ice officials]," Parrish said. "Those things seem to keep happening."

Parrish's history says once he breaks through, the floodgates should open. Maybe that will happen now.

"I don't expect to score 40 in the next 20 games, but a little confidence, a little boost, something to finally go in to relax you a little bit can sometimes do wonders," Parrish said.

Coyote killer

Good thing the Wild signed Niklas Backstrom before July 1 last summer, because it's a good bet Phoenix would have gone after him.

He's now 6-0 against the Coyotes with a .963 save percentage. He made 46 saves Thursday.

"It's four games out of 82, but I like to play against them," Backstrom said. "They're a good team. They shoot a lot. It's a big challenge for the goalie."

The grind of travel

If Wild players say they think traveling back-to-back for post-holiday games in Dallas and Phoenix was excessive, it should see the truly hellish travel the Houston Aeros, the Wild's AHL affiliate, are experiencing.

Wednesday, they played at home against San Antonio, where they won 2-0. Thursday, they flew to Chicago, then bussed 3½ hours to Moline, Ill., to play Quad City tonight. Saturday, they go back to Texas to play San Antonio, but because of airplanes at capacity, they will fly to Houston and bus three hours to San Antonio.

Etc.

• Coming off Wednesday's 8-3 loss in Dallas, coach Jacques Lemaire removed defensemen Keith Carney and Kurtis Foster and replaced them with Sean Hill and Petteri Nummelin. For Nummelin, who has been playing wing, it was only his second game since Nov. 1 as a fulltime defenseman.

• To get to the maximum 23 players by the time the holiday roster freeze ended at midnight, the Wild placed left winger Derek Boogaard (back), who's missed 11 of the past 13 games, on injured reserve.

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