Football
20y

Gaborik gets first goal in nine games

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) -- The Minnesota Wild are a confident bunch
as the NHL season nears the halfway point.

Scoring will do that for a team that recently was starved for
offense.

Marian Gaborik broke a nine-game goal drought for the Wild in a
3-3 tie with the Nashville Predators on Tuesday night.

Richard Park and Jason Wiemer also scored for Minnesota, which
extended its season-high unbeaten streak to six games (4-0-2) and
has 20 goals over that stretch.

"We're playing well right now," center Wes Walz said. "We're
on our game. I'm really excited here about what we can do in the
second half."

David Legwand, Mark Eaton and Adam Hall had goals for Nashville,
which tied Phoenix 3-3 at home Monday.

"Maybe we had a little edge there," Minnesota coach Jacques
Lemaire said, noting the Predators' back-to-back games.

Goalie Tomas Vokoun's tireless work kept Nashville in it. He
saved 23 of 26 shots, and several of them difficult stops.

"You didn't get any easy shots," Vokoun said. "I mean, look
at me. I'm soaked. That was one of the toughest games I've played
in."

His words were a testament to Minnesota's newfound
aggressiveness in the opponent's end.

"I think our guys are starting to have confidence," Lemaire
said. "That's the reason why they're scoring more goals, too.

"You go hard at the net, you're going to get some breaks.
You're going to get some bounces."

Nashville had a power play with 30.3 seconds left in overtime
after Andrei Zyuzin was whistled for holding. But Kimmo Timonen's
last-second attempt glanced off Minnesota goalie Manny Fernandez,
over the net and out of trouble.

Fernandez, who gave up just nine goals in his previous seven
starts, wasn't at his best -- stopping 17 of 20 shots.

Hall scored on a power play late in a five-goal second period to
put Nashville ahead 3-2, the Predators' second score with a man
advantage in the last 10 games. They're 2-for-48 on power plays
during that span.

Wiemer tied it at 3 a little more than a minute after Hall's
goal when Pierre Marc-Bouchard circled behind the net and threaded
the puck through traffic to Wiemer on the other side for an easy
goal.

Legwand, Nashville's leading scorer, gave the Predators a 1-0
lead just 44 seconds in when, unchallenged between the circles, he
poked a rebound past Fernandez.

Eaton answered Gaborik's backhanded with a long rebound that
appeared to glance off Wild defenseman Brad Bombardir's stick,
putting the Predators up 2-1.

Bouchard, Park, Gaborik, Willie Mitchell and Filip Kuba all
missed prime scoring chances on Vokoun, 15-12-4 this season.
Mitchell hit the post with less than six minutes remaining in
regulation.

Gaborik's season-long frustration continued in the first period,
when he had two point-blank shots turned away by Vokoun in
succession before Eaton cleared the puck out of the crease.

The franchise's first-ever All-Star last season, Gaborik missed
the first 12 games during a contract dispute and has only four
goals and five assists in 23 games since signing a multiyear deal
on Oct. 31.

He's skating better now -- Lemaire left him out there for some
double shifts in this one.

"I felt pretty good," Gaborik said. "You're hungry for more,
obviously."

It's early, but this was an important game -- the first of four
meetings this season between two of the four most recent expansion
entries into the NHL. Nashville and Minnesota began the day in
eighth and ninth place, respectively, in what promises to be a
crowded Western Conference playoff race.

"Every point is so important," Predators coach Barry Trotz
said. "You don't want to lose any ground."

Game notes
Gaborik has only eight goals in his last 55 regular-season
games. The last time he scored at Xcel Energy Center was in the
playoffs on May 2 against Vancouver. ... Nashville began a
four-game road trip. ... The Wild allowed more than two goals for
the first time in 13 games.

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