Another ho-hum victory

Greetings. Youngblood here. It was a long, late game and i have an early flight, so I'll make this rather brief.

After the game was over, I asked Wild coach Todd Richards who was next. If this marathon had gone to a 10th round in the shootout, who would have taken the next shot. "I don't know," he joked, "It was coming down to a coin flip."

What an impressive win for a Wild team that wasn't always at its best Friday. The Wild won its second straight, for the fifth time in six games and for the eighth time in 10 games. And, to give you an idea how tight the Western Conference is, the Wild is still a point out of eighth place in the West behind Calgary, which lost in overtime Friday.

it's amazing to me how much energy it takes to win games in the conference these days. "You're telling me," said Cal Clutterbuck, who scored two goals Friday. (It was his first two-goal game of the season, the third of his career). "It's exciting. It's not hard to get into the games, let me tell you that."

Richards was over the moon about the way his guys competed tonight, coming back from one goal down four times, the last with less than a minute left in regulation, with the goalie pulled and the Wild desperate.

I know this game won't mean anything if tomorrow's game goes the wrong way. But this had the feel of a turning-point type of game, the sort of game that the Wild, should it make the playoffs, will look back on as a key moment.

"There are some games where you look back during the season and see key points," Richards said. "I don't know where we go from this game. We have these guys tomorrow. ... But you look back at character wins, and this was a character win."

--Tell me there was a fan who was confident after Jose Theodore, who had allowed three goals on three shootout chances in a previous game, allowed goals on two of the first three attempts by the Blues. But he settled down, got his rhythm and timing, and came up big time after time as the shootout went deeper and deeper.

--The most impressive Wild goals from the shootout? I'll remember Mikko Koivu's signature high backhand, Brent Burns deliberate, stickhandling slow-mo move. And then Madden, 4-for-12 all-time in shootouts, burying a backhand in round nine. Who do you think would have gone in round 10?

--I think the Kyle Brodziak-Havlat-Clutterbuck line was very good tonight. They were the only three plus-players on the team tonight. They were a plus-seven as a group tonight.

--Defenseman Greg Zanon continues his gritty play, blocking six shots and making four hits.

--The Wild only gave away the puck twice tonight.