Rival gets shoved back -- hard

Right on the precipice, the Wild didn't quite clinch a playoff berth Friday night.

It did the next best thing -- nudging its most detested rival, the Vancouver Canucks, outside the Western Conference playoff bubble with an old-fashioned 4-0 whipping.

Maybe proof the Northwest Division-leading Wild is playoff-ready -- it racked up a season-high 54 penalty minutes, highlighted by non-pugilist Pierre-Marc Bouchard's first career fighting major to go with his winning goal.

"Maybe I need to go to Boogey's school, huh?" said Bouchard, referring to Derek Boogaard's fight camp for kids.

Frustrated by the thrashing, Canucks agitator Alex Burrows incited a third-period melee by spearing Bouchard in the gut as he crossed the blue line, drawing an intent-to-injure match penalty.

The Quebec, summertime neighbors loathe each other, and have had a running feud for two years.

Bouchard took a retaliatory slashing major, then dropped the gloves with Burrows.

"It was the eighth meeting, and I've had enough of this guy," Bouchard said. "On that shift, he was running around. He speared me once, and then cross-checked me. I had a good slash on him and after that we had no choice but go.

"During the summer, he's pretty quiet. But during the season, you guys can see it, what he's doing on the ice. He likes to run around and talk. I was not his man, but I'm sure somebody's going to get him one day."

Burrows denied spearing Bouchard, saying, "I don't think I hit him or anything. I just skated by him, maybe brushed his stomach, and he just went down."

After, Brent Burns used Nathan McIver's head as a punching bag, right after Boogaard fought Jeff Cowan and before Todd Fedoruk took down McIver.

"It was like a playoff game. We played as a team and we stuck up for each other," Bouchard said.

The only thing standing in the way of the Wild and a third playoff appearance is one measly point. The only way the Wild would miss the playoffs is if it went 0-3 in its final three games and both eighth-place Nashville and ninth-place Vancouver go 4-0.

The Wild is three points ahead of Colorado and Calgary for its first division title; the Flames have two games in hand.

"We believe we're in good shape, but things happen," Mikko Koivu said.

The Wild, winner of four in a row at home, took the season series from Vancouver 5-2-1. It gave jet-lagged Roberto Luongo an early exit for the second consecutive game .

After witnessing the birth of his daughter Thursday night in Florida, Luongo, pulled Wednesday at Colorado, gave up four goals on 21 shots in 33 1/2 minutes.

Bouchard (first goal in 20 games) and Koivu (first in 11), broke long goal spells. Burns and Fedoruk also scored, and Niklas Backstrom set the franchise record for wins in a season (31) by making 28 saves for his ninth career shutout.

But Fedoruk couldn't care less about the scoring. He only wanted to talk about the 93 combined penalty minutes and the fights by Bouchard and Burns.

"That's what we're trying to do --get those guys to play tough," Fedoruk said. "It might be a little uncomfortable for them, but the whole team builds off stuff like they that. They get a little bigger. It's a good thing."