Despite Wild's victory over Montreal, fans voice frustration over team's poor power play

Good win for the Wild tonight … in spite of the power play that has taken on a life of its own.

I don't know how the Wild's going to break out of the power-play doldrums because it's clear it's in the collective head of players and it's clear the hometown fans are fed up and ready to pounce. They proved that tonight by booing virtually every second of a five-minute major in the third period with the team up 2-0 and having had the puck virtually every moment of the first two periods against a fast, good-skating Eastern Conference finalist a year ago.

The boos with the team leading created an intense Twitter debate on my feed at least between fans watching as to whether that was appropriate or not. I'll wimp out and not offer an opinion because I don't have to pay for tickets and the people in the building do.

But I will say, as ineffective as the Wild power play has been this season, the hisses and whistles and angry boos seemed to help cripple that one because it was as bad as it has been all year. Just look at the replay if you don't believe me. The puck was like a hot potato. Nobody wanted it. Player after player just kept throwing it away like, 'Here, it's your problem.'

Hey, these guys may be professionals, but thousands of people booing your every move, it's not exactly simple to ignore it and make a play.

Not surprisingly, the Wild barely entered the zone and didn't manage a shot just like a second-period, 58-second 5-on-3. But the fan frustration with the power play actually began on the first one. Fans up below me were booing with the first cleared puck.

This is a byproduct though of a quarter's season's worth of bad power plays that have absolutely cost the Wild games and is largely the reason why the team is once again clawing around the seventh, eighth, ninth spot in the West.

Jason Pominville actually made the point that I joked about on Twitter. At least the Wild ate up another five minutes of the third and "didn't give up much," Pominville said. "Didn't get much," but bottom line, the Wild won thanks to Pominville's second-period winning goal, his first goal in 11 games and second in 17 – both against Montreal.

On the power play, assistant coach Andrew Brunette's thoughts on the frustrating power play were in Tuesday's paper. If you didn't read it, take a look on startribune.com/wild.

Coach Mike Yeo said, "It's up to me to figure out how to deal with it, it's up to me to correct it. This is not easy for our players to deal with right now.

"The fact of the matter is we win a big game against a good team without Suts (Ryan Suter) and we did a lot of good things, and you almost kind of leave the game not feeling great about it. I would say the last 10 games is somewhat similar. We're 7-2-1 in our last 10 games and a lot of times you're leaving the rink and you win the game" and don't have a good feeling.

"Building momentum is a little tough right now.

Yeo is right. The PK has been outstanding. The 5-on-5 play has been real good, although it's take a little turn in the past 10 games despite the win. If the Wild could just get the power play to click, it'll go on a run. On the other hand, if the Wild doesn't figure out this power play problem, it will go nowhere and be in danger of missing the playoffs.

"Everyone's frustrated. Fans are frustrated," Yeo said. "But trust me, I'd be willing to bet they're not as frustrated as we are. It would be very beneficial to everybody on our side, whether it's points, whether it's wins, we know this is something that has to get better. It will get better. It's not going to come easily. But the fact of the matter is it's about winning hockey games. Again, I give our guys credit. We found a way to win. We didn't score on a 5-on-3, we didn't score on a five-minute major and we still won a hockey game. To me there's character involved in that."

Zach Parise, who assisted on Pominville's goal and now has nine points in the past eight games since returning from a concussion, on the fans booing the power play: "We won the game. It doesn't matter. We won the game. I mean, you want us to score four power-play goals and lose? We won the game. We beat arguably the best team in the Eastern Conference, and that's the most important thing."

Pominville's goal was his first since Nov. 8, and as Parise said, it's funny the way it goes. Pominville has been snakebit bigtime and yet "he's able to get one not even shooting, not even looking at the puck. That's the way it goes sometimes."

Parise also praised the job the defensemen did in Suter's absence. I thought Jonas Brodin was outstanding tonight. Same with Marco Scandella.

Pominville laughed about his goal. Luckily it was called good goal on the ice because Toronto didn't find conclusive evidence that the puck didn't deflect off Pominville's stick below the crossbar. So if it was waved off, it would have been no goal like the Parise one in St. Louis last year.

Pominville even mimicked how he scored to his teammates at the bench during the long review. He could be seen laughing showing how he ducked and the puck hit the shaft of his stick that he held vertically.