Good evening from a highway in pitch-black Tampere, Finland, where I'm in the back row of the media/front office bus on the way back to Helsinki following the Wild's 5-1 exhibition win over Ilves tonight.
I'm in the back row because I'm trying to keep my keyboard pounding silent because a lot of people are trying to sleep in the front dozen rows.
I need to make this quick because I'm running out of laptop juice and I have lots of work to get done. Believe it or not, no outlets in the "press box" (school desk and chair), so I've got an 1:41 left of battery, which hopefully lasts through the bus ride.
Wild started groggy tonight, got much better, had lots of chances in the first and connected on Cal Clutterbuck's first of three goals. Then the Wild took a couple early second-period power plays and put together an awful second period in which they played pass-the-puck to the Finnish guys as Ilves tied it.
You should have seen the 50-or-so Wild fans during the second intermission. They had such blank faces, they were either jet-lagged or depressed. I'd say both actually.
But just as I was about to do my NHL predictions and pick the Wild 40th in the 30-team league, they stormed out in the third and scored four times. Clutterbuck connected on No. 2, then Marek Zidlicky scored a beautiful goal on a give and go with Mikko Koivu. He passed the puck off the wall to Koivu, stepped in front of his defender, took the puck in the right circle, kicked it from his left skate to his right and buried it. Then Clutterbuck made it 4-1 and Chuck Kobasew 5-1.
Matt Cullen had at least two assists that I saw on Clutterbuck's first two goals, but no stats tonight in the unofficial exhibition game tabbed the NHL Premiere Challenge.
Clutterbuck said this was his first hat trick since his last year at junior with Oshawa. John Tavares probably got three assists on those goals. Clutterbuck said he did get a hat trick a few weeks ago at the Octagon camp in St. Louis Park.