The Cowboy delivers

No not the Cowboys. Owen Nolan, the toughest son of a female dog around, took his 37-year-old body to the ice at the X, and nearly left without it. Throughout the game he threw the living corpse of his nineteen year NHL career at the puck, at the Islanders, and at the net. Remember his last target, because the Wild would need him to hit it to avoid overtime.

The entire team played an energetic and fast-paced first period. The New Yorkers couldn't hang on to the puck in any zone, and couldn't deal with the Wild's very improved puck-possession game. More time spent with their line-mates always improves the players sense of timing and positioning, but it's been the break-out of their defensive zone that's allowed the Wild to keep the puck after they've forced a turnover. What's helped has been an extra pass within the defensive zone in order to shake the opposing forecheck. Call it what you will, but playing with patience in their own zone has allowed a much faster and cleaner transition through the neutral zone. That's a good thing. Once they reach the opposing zone, they tend to lose their way, but getting there is half the battle.

Getting the first goal usually wins the game for the Wild, but for all the energy with which they opened the game, they were no properly awarded. Owen Nolan eschewed his body for the puck, hitting the net with a fluky bounce off the goaltender's skate as he fell into the boards. This was after taking numerous shots to the face, none of which were called by the referees. The Islanders got that benefit, but the Wild continued their strong power-play kill. New York went 0 for 6 on the night. The Isle got the equalizer not long into the second period, but were gracious enough to take back-to-back penalties, giving the Wild the dreaded 5-on-3 power play for more than a minute. Dreaded for all of the wrong reasons given the way the Wild have played with extra men in the past few games. Predictably, the Wild collapsed the New York defense, but really only got one good shot before the power-play died, buried side-by-side with the Wild's momentum. The Islanders took it to the Wild, the Wild did not score on their other two power-plays (0/4 in the period), and Josh Bailey took the lead after Backstrom got turned around on the Islanders' puck movement. More often than not this season, game over.

Yet the Wild tied it on Mikko Koivu's, get this, power-play goal in the third period. The play was beautifully skated, beautifully passed, and beautifully finished with a one-time deflection. No standing around, passing back and forth between the points, which inevitably leads to a shot from one of those points. Not the way to score, on a power-play or otherwise. The way to score is to pass the puck from the goal-line, through the crease, and then back across the slot to Koivu's waiting blade. Misdirection that the goaltender cannot handle is the way to create scoring chances. Hopefully they can learn from that power-play.

They'll watch the tape from the end of the third as well. The Cowboy went to the net on Nick Schultz shot, and took a shot of his own from the Islander defense. Erik Belanger hustled to keep the puck in the zone, shooting it high as Nolan picked himself up from the ice in time to catch Belanger's shot, drop it to his stick, and shove in the winner. After the checks around the net, the sticks to his face, and his diving blocked shot (off of his laces no less), the game-winning catch-and-shoot seemed pretty easy. For a fiery Irishman like Owen Nolan, it probably was.