Xcel Energy Center - Minnesota Wild

Trip Notes: The night I got into Minneapolis I had tickets to the Gophers game. Took a taxi to Mariucci Arena. What a great experience. When I walked up the stairs into the arena, the band was at the top of the stairs playing. What a great atmosphere. There were a bunch of pictures of the 1980 Olympic team and of all the NCAA titles they’ve won. Sat in between two older couples. Both were really nice. One of them even gave me a ride back to my hotel. That was very nice of them. Gopher fans have to be the best hockey fans I’ve witnessed so far. They were loud and had a ton of cheers. There was one really loud woman that started most of the cheers. The Gophers played Anchorage Alaska. Went to the Wild game the following night. Left town the next morning.

Arena Notes: The Xcel Energy was a very nice and new arena. It was right across the street from my hotel, the Holiday Inn. It is near many restaurants and bars. Had a good seat, on the 3rd level near the blue line. They were hosting the All Star game this season. Xcel Energy Center opened up in 2000 seating 18,834 hockey fans. I don't believe they have a mascot. Currently only Wayne Gretzky's #99 is retired.


Game Notes: The Colorado Avalanche are known for their offensive firepower. Instead they used tight defense to snap their worst losing streak of the season.

Milan Hejduk netted his team-leading 27th goal, and Joe Sakic and Paul Kariya also scored as the Avalanche made the most of a season-low 14 shots in beating the Minnesota Wild 3-1 Sunday night.

The Avalanche scored once in each period despite not having more than five shots in any frame and snapped their losing streak at three games.

``Shots on goal don't count in the win-loss column,'' Avalanche coach Tony Granato said. ``The win was all that matters. They'd
score a lot of goals lately, so it was important for us to limit their chances.''

Minnesota, which scored 10 goals in its previous two games, generated more scoring chances throughout, but struggled again on the
power play. The Wild have one of the NHL's worst man-advantage units and failed to score on five power-play chances.

``We were playing the best team in the NHL,'' Minnesota coach Jacques Lemaire said. ``If you give them 14 shots on net and they
probably had five (scoring) chances, thank you, we'll take that any day.''

The Wild had the upper hand offensively in the first period, but Hejduk gave the Avalanche a 1-0 lead when his rising shot beat Dwayne Roloson's glove.

Minnesota got even at 1 in the second period when Marc Chouinard scored for the third time in two games. After a pass from Alexandre Daigle, Chouinard's slap shot from the right circle got past David Aebischer.

When Avalanche defenseman Derek Morris was given simultaneous penalties for elbowing and unsportsmanlike conduct shortly after, Minnesota seemed poised to take the lead.

But Colorado held the Wild without a shot during the four-minute power play and took the lead late in the second.

From the lower right corner of the rink, Sakic sent the puck to the front of the net, where it glanced off the skate of Wild defenseman
Brad Bombardier and under Roloson's left pad.

Sakic wasn't ready to take any artistic credit for the goal he called lucky.

``What play?'' he joked. ``There was no play. I was just trying to throw it across. But you take anything you can get.''
Kariya scored an unassisted goal after the Wild turned over the puck midway through the third period.

``There's not many nights we can outshoot a team of Colorado's caliber and come out with a loss,'' Wild forward Richard Park said.
Aebischer finished with 24 saves.

More Notes:
Avalanche forward Peter Forsberg was scratched from the lineup for the third consecutive game. Forsberg has been nursing a groin injury much of the season. ... Colorado holds a 14-2-3-1 advantage in the regular-season series between the teams over four seasons. ... Roloson has allowed three or more goals in just eight of his 37 starts this season. ... The Avalanche had fiveshots in each of the first two periods and four in the third.

(*Game notes taken from espn.com*)