Wild players feel at home in Denver

DENVER – Jared Spurgeon sat in his familiar stall inside the visitors' dressing room on Saturday morning and said, "It almost feels like our second home."

No kidding.

When one considers how often the Wild has visited between last year's playoffs and all the divisional meetings, from the now-defunct Northwest Division days to the current Central, the Pepsi Center seems like the Wild's second rink.

"We know where to go, that's for sure," Wild coach Mike Yeo said. "We even said that on the way over [to the arena on the bus]. It's going to be weird going and playing somewhere else on the road because we've been here so much."

Before Saturday, the last time the Wild was at the Pepsi Center was April 30 when the team fought back four times from one-goal deficits to eliminate the Avalanche in Game 7 of the Western Conference quarterfinals.

Nino Niederreiter, streaking down the right wing, scored in overtime. Niederreiter admitted "a few things came to mind" while he took part in Saturday's morning skate.

"It's always a special feeling coming back here," ­he said. "The whole series was such a fun series. I felt like we played some great hockey in this building. We were always very close. And obviously I will never forget Game 7."

"Lots of good memories in here, but we need to take a new approach to it this season," Spurgeon said. "It was a lot of fun, and obviously coming back you remember those times, but we have to turn the page. It's a new year."

Left wing Matt Cooke couldn't play in Games 5 and 7 last spring because of his Game 3 knee-on-knee hit that ended Avalanche defenseman Tyson's Barrie's playoffs. Cooke was suspended seven games, so Saturday was his first game in front of Colorado's fans since then.

He expected boos throughout. In a Friday column in the Denver Post, Avalanche coach Patrick Roy said, "One day, it might be the opposite. One of our players will hurt one of their guys. And I'm sure everybody is going to be very happy to remind [Minnesota] what happened to Tyson Barrie."

Yeo wouldn't comment on Roy's words, but columnist Mike Kiszla suggested Cooke keep his head up Saturday.

"I always have my head on a swivel," Cooke said. "That's the way I play the game. I hit guys and I expect to be hit. That's part of the game and what I expect. Obviously emotions are high and things are said at times, but it really doesn't have any effect on how I prepare to play the game."

"Listen, if you're going to be on our team, then you have to play in tough buildings and you have to play against good teams," Yeo said. "We don't want to have guys on our team that we feel we have to hide. There's no other way to get that experience except to go out there and deal with it. There's no easing into it."