Crazy game against the Sabres snaps the Wild's losing streak

Cleaning up the hats after the hat trick.

The first period in last Thursday's game between the Minnesota Wild and Buffalo Sabres at the Xcel Energy Center certainly wasn't typical.

First of all, the score was 4-2 after 20 minutes. That's four goals for the Wild, a team that struggled to score goals on the recent road trip and rode a four-game losing streak back home to St. Paul.

Then there was the Wild's netminder, Darcy Kuemper. He quickly took the wind out of the sails by giving up a goal on the first shot of the game for the Sabres, just 63 seconds in. When he gave up a soft goal on the next shot, yes, that's two goals on two shots, he got the hook. Head Coach Mike Yeo didn't waste any time pulling the No. 1 goalie and throwing veteran Niklas Backstrom in the cage.

I never heard exactly, but I don't think there was an injury involved. It seemed that for whatever reason, Kuemps just didn't have his stuff together that night.

Goal, goal, goal
Anyway, the real key to the first period was three goals scored in a 17-second span after Buffalo had its 1-0 lead. Ryan Carter, a fourth-liner not necessarily known for his offense, drove the net and punched the puck into the net. I say punched, because that's what the referees thought he did - punched it in with his fist. So they had to go to the tape to find out if it was a good goal. He knew it was, based on his victory skate in front of his bench before the official call was made.

It was a good goal, going in off Carter's stick, not his hands.

Seven seconds later, before the announcer could even finish telling us the time of the goal and who had the assists, Nino Niederreiter put the Wild up 2-1. The place was going kind of crazy at that point.

Then came the second goal from Buffalo, causing the still-standing fans to throw their hands up as if to say, "Are you kidding me?"

A power-play goal. Yes, that actually happened.
Things settled down after that, until near the end of the period. Niederreiter scored his second goal of the game. It wasn't just any goal. It was scored on the power play, something that has been a struggle for the Wild so far this season. And that's an understatement.

As I said to my mom, "We just witnessed history."

Turns out, the Wild weren't done with the man advantage. Seriously, 5-on-4 play for the Wild has been a momentum killer more often than not. Jared Spurgeon, in his first game back from an injury, extended the Wild's lead with the only goal of the second period.

Yes, it was another power-play tally. I couldn't believe it.

When it rains, it pours for Nino
Niederreiter was close to a hat trick a couple times during the game, before he finally got it with an empty-netter to finish off the 6-3 win. Not only was it his first hat trick, but it was also his first multi-goal game in his career. What a crazy game.

Afterward, there were some thoughts that the game really wasn't that big of a deal because it was played against lowly Buffalo. But when you've lost four games in a row on a dismal road trip to bring your team to .500, the old cliche is true: A win's a win.

I guess it was just what the Wild needed. It went from a losing streak to a three-game winning streak, even if they almost blew it against Winnipeg and won in overtime. But that's a different story. Hint: Officials got too involved in that game.

I suppose I can't finish up here without addressing the illness in the locker room. Yes, it seems four Wild players have had the mumps. Other teams in the league, and even an official, have dealt with this as well. The common thread is teams that played in LA and Anaheim around the same time earlier in the year.

The Wild usually have the flu go through parts of the team during the season, but the mumps? Come on.