Koivu saves Wild with late goals in Game Five
ByReuters
Published 23/04/2016 at 05:16 GMT
April 22 (The Sports Xchange) - Mikko Koivu scored the game-tying goal late in regulation and also scored the game-winner 4:55 into overtime for the Minnesota Wild, who remain alive with a 5-4 overtime win against the Dallas Stars in Game 5 of their first round series on Friday at American Airlines Center.
Eurosport
Image credit: Eurosport
Koivu scored the game-winner, his third goal of the series, by redirecting a wrist shot by Ryan Suter from the left point. Koivu knocked Suter's attempt out of the air, deflecting the puck enough to send it through the five-hole of Stars goaltender Antti Niemi, who stopped 37 of 41 shots in the game.
The Wild still trail the best-of-series series 3-2.
Game 6 will be in Minnesota on Sunday.
Koivu tied it at 4-4 with 3:09 remaining with his second goal of the series on a wrist shot from the slot. Mikael Granlund, Jordan Schroeder and Nino Niederreiter also had regulation goals for the Wild and Devan Dubnyk stopped 20 of 24 shots.
Johnny Oduya, Jamie Benn, Jason Spezza and Alex Goligoski scored for Dallas in regulation and John Klingberg had two assists.
The Stars trailed 2-1 after two periods, but Benn tied it 1:00 into the third with his third goal of the series. Niederreiter scored his first of the series just 50 seconds later to give the Wild back the lead at 3-2.
Spezza then scored his third goal of the series 8:28 into the third period, beating Dubnyk far post with a shot that just got around the outstretched Wild goaltender.
Goligoski, a Minnesota native who had a costly turnover leading to the Wild's first goal, scored his first goal of the series 28 seconds after Spezza's equalizer when his wrist shot from the left point deflected in off the back of Wild defenseman Marco Scandella.
The Wild got their first real break of the series when Granlund scored off a Dallas turnover in front of their goal 3:32 into the game. Granlund intercepted a backhand pass by Goligoski, who was being pressured from behind by David Jones.
Niemi denied Granlund's initial shot at the near post, but Granlund poked the rebound in for his first goal of the series.
Minnesota went ahead 2-0 when Schroeder scored off a rebound 5:16 into the opening period. Niemi turned away the initial wrist shot by Ryan Suter but Schroeder was at the near post to score off the rebound with a backhand. It was Schroeder's first career playoff goal.
Dallas cut it to 2-1 with 2:42 remaining before the first intermission when Oduya beat Dubnyk far post with a slap shot from the left point. Oduya received a pass from Radek Faksa and scored his first goal of the series with a shot that passed over Dubnyk's glove.
It was Oduya's sixth career playoff goal and his first in 29 postseason games, since May 28, 2014, against the Kings with the Blackhawks. That goal was also Oduya's first in 55 games, including the playoffs.
Scan me
Related Topics
Share this article
Advertisement
Advertisement