Wild hits the break in first

A gritty victory over Colorado completed a confidence-boosting 2-1 trip and vaulted the Wild atop the Northwest Division.

By MICHAEL RUSSO, Star Tribune

Last update: January 28, 2008 - 12:25 AM

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WILD 3, COLORADO 2

NHL: All Star Game • 5 p.m. Sunday • TV: Vs. Network (1130-AM)

Wild: 6 p.m. Wednesday vs.

Anaheim • TV: Vs. Network (830-AM)

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DENVER - Last weekend, mere thoughts of this Northwest Division trek were daunting.

Back-to-back games in Vancouver and Calgary, then on to Denver -- three cities in which the Wild was winless in five games this season.

As it turns out, there was no reason to fret.

Thursday night, the Wild brought in the All-Star break by climbing atop the cutthroat division with a 3-2 victory over the Colorado Avalanche to go 2-1 on the trip.

"To go into the break first in the division, it's a big confidence boost for us," said captain Nick Schultz, who had his third career two-assist game and was a rock defensively.

Pavol Demitra scored the winning goal in the second period, and Brian Rolston and Todd Fedoruk added the others as the Wild won only its fifth regular-season game in history at the Pepsi Center. Niklas Backstrom made 28 saves to improve to 5-1-1 against Colorado.

"We needed to step up on this trip. We really did," said Rolston, who scored in each game. "We knew that, and we did."

Not that this victory was easy.

Looking as if it would run away early, the Wild sloppily helped the Avalanche -- playing without Joe Sakic, Ryan Smith and Paul Stastny -- back into a game it had no business being in.

The Wild blew a 2-0 first-period lead. It had to kill off consecutive power plays to end the second period. The Avs had several close calls in the third, including a waved-off goal.

But apparently the Wild ate Lucky Charms for breakfast and held on to improve to 20-0 when leading after two periods.

"The thing is, we didn't panic," said Marian Gaborik, who heads this morning to Atlanta for the All-Star Game.

Gaborik rebounded from a careless last-minute, first-period mistake to play a strong game. He blindly backhanded a puck out of mid-air that hit Jaroslav Hlinka. Andrew Brunette took a shot off the post that Backstrom pushed over the goal line while trying to reel the puck in. The Wild was 28 seconds away from taking a 2-0 lead into the second.

"Look at Gaborik. Did he play well!" coach Jacques Lemaire said. "The one play, he should be careful. But he skated, he backchecked, he had scoring chances, he hit a few guys."

Wojtek Wolski tied the score 2-2 early in the second, but with the Wild asleep at the switch, Colorado's Ian Laperriere creamed unsuspecting defenseman Martin Skoula in the neutral zone well after Skoula had given up the puck.

The borderline hit was like an alarm clock in the Wild's ear. One could feel the momentum switch back to Minnesota's favor.

"A teammate takes a hit like that, you want to get revenge," Schultz said. "They took over the game until that hit."

Demitra's winner -- Jose Theodore dropped Kurtis Foster's blast and Demitra kicked the rebound to his stick for his 10th goal -- came after the Aaron Voros-James Sheppard-Matt Foy line buzzed Colorado's net but just missed scoring. It was the second time the Wild scored after the "Kid Line" threatened.

"It's called lighting the fuse," quipped Voros.

Prior to the trip, Rolston had gone nine games without a goal. With three goals on the trip, he officially is off the schneid.

"Jacques showed a lot more confidence in me as of late, and that gave me confidence," Rolston said. "I knew I had to step up my game. You can't go that many games without producing. It was nice absolutely to get back on track."

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