Wild looking to score 5-on-5, win at home; Reilly recalled

Good news, Wild fans. Remember, a playoff series doesn't start until you lose a game at home!

So, the Wild's still right in this thing against Dallas Stars.

"I think the desperation will be greater," Stars coach Lindy Ruff said of what he expects in Game 3. "We saw the push. For me, I thought they played a hard game. They got above us, they created some turnovers, they made some plays. It was a pretty even game when it came to the number of chances. I actually felt they had a couple better looks. Maybe it evened out by the end with [Jamie] Benn getting the breakaway and a couple 2-on-1s we broke up."

Down 0-2, the Wild needs to concentrate on just winning a game, veteran Jarret Stoll said.

"They did their job at home. They did what they want to do," Stoll said. "Now we have to do what we want to do at home. We have to use our fans, the atmosphere to our advantage, and obviously be better offensively, create more. Bottom line, just score. Bear down on our opportunities. We had a bunch there at the end, last night, that we didn't finish on. And probably, should have went to overtime, but it didn't. We just have to take advantage of our situation now. Just win a game. Come home tomorrow, win and go from there. Try to get our home ice going."
Good day from Xcel Energy Center, where the Wild held an optional practice today, one that included defenseman Mike Reilly.

My guess is he plays Game 3 on Monday instead of Nate Prosser, but coach John Torchetti wasn't tipping his hand.

Reilly said Director of Player Development Brad Bombardir told him Friday to expect to come up. He got five games down in Iowa, registering two assists and a minus-2.

Reilly's right eye lid is black and blue and the top of his left eye looked a little swollen. He said, "I got cross-checked from behind and then [Kurtis] Gabriel came in and got the guy pretty good for me. I maybe owe him dinner. Happened Wednesday and I think it looks pretty good."

Still lots of talk Sunday about how to counteract Antoine Roussel. He worked his butt off Saturday and the Wild have to figure out a way to not let him run amok. There's a difference between ignoring and fleeing and I felt the Wild was afraid to engage him throughout the game and that led to his effectiveness.

Just look at the first-period power play when nobody wanted the puck when he was running around. Look at the shift he scored. It started with the Wild having possession of the puck and the Wild just throwing it away, then Matt Dumba backing into the zone when Roussel coming hard.

"I don't think he agitates that well," veteran Ryan Carter said. "I think he works hard and that maybe frustrates guys. I think that's what he's good at. As far as being an agitator, I see him skating away and I don't see him engaging guys after whistles a lot unless they're sitting on the ground or something like that. But if somebody goes up and talks to him, he seems to just turn and skate the way. I think Lindy's pulling back on him. He just works hard."

So how does the Wild work harder? "Execute," Carter said. "A guy that runs around, if you execute with the puck, then he's out of position and you've got to use that to your advantage. Right now I don't know that we're executing as cleanly as we'd like to and it feeds into his game."

"[Jared] Spurgeon did a good job," he said. "The littlelest guy on the team takes [Roussel] out. We just need more of it. It's not just Roussel, it's all 20 players. I don't really worry about one player. It's all 20. We have to by physical against all of them."

Ruff, who is such a great coach, has Roussel walking that line well.

On what makes Roussel so effective, Ruff told the Dallas press today, "I just think he's a workaholic. Antoine, he loves playing, he loves working. It's hard to find him where he doesn't have a smile on his face or he's not energetic. His personality is infectious when you're around him."
On playing in hostile Minnesota during Games 3 and 4, Ruff said Roussel will "have an even bigger smile on his face. He welcomes animosity, relishes under the thought that they're treating him as an antagonizer. I thought last night was actually a pretty quiet game when it came to that part of it. If you look at what he's done for us from the penalty killing front and the physicality and the energy he's provided for us, and then keeping that all under wraps, he's only fallen off a couple times this year. He's done a tremendous job."

Frankly, the fans may show more hostility toward the Wild the next few games than toward Roussel. It'll be interesting to see how fans react if the Wild falls down early to the Stars. The angst and frustration level of the fans is as bad as I've ever seen it.

Carter talked about his 10-minute misconduct for incitement. He said he knowingly nudged goalie Kari Lehtonen because he figured the refs wouldn't see him while they hauled Jarret Stoll to the penalty box and all the TV timeout activity was going down on the ice.

"The goalie two-handed Carter back, too," Torchetti said.

Carter added, "I'm good at taking penalties nobody's ever heard of before. I always get the good ones."
Last year against Winnipeg, Carter came out of the penalty box and instead of nailing Mark Scheifele, he played the puck with one foot in the box. That's a no-no and he got an interference penalty.
"I didn't want to step two feet and kill him, so I stepped out one foot and waited and poked the puck and right back in," Carter said, laughing. "If I would have jumped out and crushed the guy, it would have been legal."

The Wild has no 5-on-5 goals in the series and one total goal. It has lost seven in a row with seven goals in that span.

"We do have to play grittier," Torchetti said. "Our leaders have to be better leaders now moving forward, too. That's just how the game is. You always count on your leaders. Those are your big-time players. So far, we've just been just average all the way around. We haven't gotten the five-on-five goals, and then we've just got to get some more, and you always push to your leaders. That's why they're the leaders on your team. They guide the team to victory."