Column: Desperate looks good on Wild in Game 5 victory
You know what they say about giving life to a team that was straddling death’s doorstep in a best-of-seven-series …
Um, be certain your seatback is straight and your seat belt is fastened and welcome to Minnesota?
You betcha.
It isn’t over yet, this divisional playoff matchup between the Knights and Wild, things being extended with Minnesota posting a 4-2 victory in Game 5 on Monday night at T-Mobile Arena.
The announced crowd of 12,156 again sounded even more ear-piercing than the number suggests. Its lone consolation: Should the series reach its apex of a seventh game, it too will be contested here.
“Obviously,” Knights captain Mark Stone said, “they were playing for their lives.”
Starting off hot
Minnesota was always going to dictate the opening 20 minutes. Teams can either become inspired by desperation or swallowed whole by it. The Wild chose the latter.
They played that first period while grabbing a 3-1 lead with the desire you might expect a team straddling the reality of elimination. The Knights would allow just seven shots but weren’t always the more focused bunch.
Like when four bodies allowed the not-so-speedy Jordan Greenway to blow (maneuver?) past them and score via his own rebound against Marc-Andre Fleury.
Think of an uncontested layup during pickup ball at the Y and you get the idea about Minnesota’s third goal.
But if you’re looking for a little pick-me-up when things go bad, discover what it is the Knights consume between periods. As in Game 3, they dominated the second 20 minutes as a group of teenagers might a playground full of elementary school kids.
They would outshoot Minnesota 22-1 over the second and — yeah, this sounds crazy — it seemed even more one-sided than that. Five players for the Knights had more shots on goal in the period than the Wild.
Like you know, the entire team.
Minnesota merely survived. It wasn’t as strong a push from the Knights in the third, but they were still the better team. I’m also not sure defensemen Alex Pietrangelo and Shea Theodore ever came off the ice.
“They were opportunistic in the first period,” said Knights coach Pete DeBoer. “The looks they got, they found a way to put them in. I thought we pushed hard. There was a lot of good that happened. … If you replay that game, nine times out of 10 you probably win. We didn’t.”
Little sticky?
Here things go, then, back to Xcel Energy Center.
The Knights took Games 3 and 4 there, essentially assuming control of the series while simultaneously removing that large monkey off their collective backs for having never won a game in regulation at the Wild’s home.
But while the humidity level in Minnesota hadn’t yet made walking 10 feet to your car seem as though you just took a long shower, things were beginning to feel a tad steamy in the capital city of St. Paul.
Think how hot under ‘the ol’ sweaters the Knights might feel if they can’t close things out in Game 6 on Wednesday night.
History still likes them in this spot. They have in their short existence held a 3-1 lead four times and won three of the those series. Of course, the only one anyone remembers was — hello, Cody Eakin — when a certain San Jose team coached by a certain guy named DeBoer rallied back to eliminate the Knights in 2019.
So, for now, any thoughts and chatter that might eventually commence should a Knights-Colorado playoff series actually become official have been paused.
This one isn’t over.
Put those seats in their upright position and secure those tray tables, is right.
Welcome (back) to Minnesota.
Ed Graney is a Sigma Delta Chi Award winner for sports column writing and can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be heard on “The Press Box,” ESPN Radio 100.9 FM and 1100 AM, from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. Monday through Friday. Follow @edgraney on Twitter.