The Minnesota Wild found some relief

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ST. PAUL, Minn. -- The Minnesota Wild found some relief and satisfaction after their first game of the new year. The Buffalo Sabres were the perfect tonic. Jason Pominville scored against his old team, and the Wild beat the Sabres 4-1 on Thursday night to stop a franchise-record streak of six straight losses in regulation. Re-establishing their style and regaining the ground they lost will take some time, but for the Wild this was a strong start. "I cant express how good it feels to get that monkey off our back," defenceman Clayton Stoner said. Marco Scandella scored, just 106 seconds before Pominville. Jason Zucker had the third goal in the second period against Ryan Miller, one of the three goalies recently picked for the U.S. Olympic team. "Ryans been playing really good, and we didnt give him an effort in front of him," captain Steve Ott said. The Wild sure werent feeling sorry for anyone. They won for the first time since Dec. 17, and Niklas Backstrom picked up a victory for the first time in his last nine starts since Nov. 23. With Josh Harding sitting out with an illness, Backstrom stopped 19 shots. "Thats something we have to build on," Backstrom said. "I think thats the first step." Miller made 28 saves, not nearly enough for a Sabres team with by far the worst record and fewest goals in the NHL. They were nearly shut out for the second straight game, following a 3-0 loss at Winnipeg on Tuesday, but Matt Ellis knocked in a loose puck in front of the net with 1:12 left. "I think teams see what we have to offer, adjust, and we dont make any adjustments," Miller said. "We have to be adaptable." The Wild entered the night with the second-lowest scoring average in the league, so naturally the first goal came more than 24 1/2 minutes into the game. Scandella flashed a big smile after he beat defenceman Christian Ehrhoff to the slot and turned a pass from Matt Cooke into his first goal in 13 games. Then Pominville, who had the game-winner in October when these teams met in Buffalo, scored against his former teammate by using a snap shot to sneak the puck between Millers glove and the post. Zucker, playing on an all-21-year-old second line with Nino Niederreiter and Mikael Granlund, stretched the lead to 3-0 with his first goal of the season. He was recalled on Wednesday from Iowa of the AHL for the fourth time since Nov. 20. "We didnt do anything special, but we did all the little things right," Pominville said. Ten Wild players had points, including two assists each for Ryan Suter and Mikko Koivu, after coach Mike Yeo shook up his lineup yet again. Suter and Jonas Brodin were split up on defence, too. Even Kyle Brodziak scored, for the first time in 31 games since Oct. 26. He was awarded the goal with 26 seconds left when he was tripped just past the blue line with an empty net in front of him. Yeo praised Koivu, Pominville and new linemate Dany Heatley for their leadership. "If they had a tough shift, they got right back to it, got it right the next shift," Yeo said. "They play an important role on our team. We need them to continue to go out and perform." Yeos job has been put in jeopardy by the skid that began around Thanksgiving and kept up all the way through New Years Eve. The Wild improved to 6-12-1 in their last 19 games with their first regulation win in 11 games since Dec. 8. The Sabres already fired their coach, replacing Ron Rolston with Ted Nolan on Nov. 13. The results havent been much better, though. They fell to 0-9-2 in their last 11 road games and have only one regulation win away from Buffalo all season. This mightve been their worst game under Nolan. "If it wasnt it had to be pretty close. Its just one of those things where when were bad, were bad," Nolan said. NOTES: The Sabres lost here for the first time in four games since Dec. 13, 2003. Theyre 5-2 at Xcel Energy Center since it opened. ... Wild D Keith Ballard was a healthy scratch for the first time this season. ... Sabres RW Drew Stafford left the game with an upper-body injury. LW Ville Leino was scratched because of a lower-body injury. ... The Sabres have not gone without a goal in consecutive games since Oct. 9 and 11, 2003. Travis Kelce Jersey . "I could have been equipment manager but nooooo" from Lisa on Ice. Season 6, Episode 8. Joe Montana Jersey . Murray beat Sam Querrey 7-6 (5), 6-7 (3), 6-1, 6-3 to clinch Britains opening-round victory against the United States on Sunday at Petco Park. 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It would be an understatement to say that I am still stunned by what has transpired here in Russia. Yuzuru Hanyu, a 19-year-old, has just become the Olympic gold medallist, the first for his country, in this individual discipline. Meanwhile, the three-time and reigning world champion, Patrick Chan of Canada, has taken the silver medal. Neither skated perfectly, far from it, but the drama of it all was breathtaking. And although I might have forecast a different result, I find myself unable to quibble with the bottom line. Someone came first and someone came second. The only call I took when I got back here to the hotel was from an old acquaintance and colleague named Dave Campbell at CHED radio in Edmonton. I had run into him during my Hockey Night in Canada days covering the Oilers. But tonight Dave didnt even mention the score of the Canadian mens hockey game versus Austria, a 6-0 shellacking by the maple leaf men. He wanted to talk figure skating. “You know, we were discussing Chan and the result in the office, and we were disappointed,” he said. “But then again we thought that figure skating must surely be the most difficult of the Olympic sports.” I would have to agree. Personally speaking, I cannot fathom what it must be like to go onto a sheet of ice in front of 12,000 people and to perform what appears to be a series of impossible acts without an overwhelming fear of failure. There is nowhere for these young people to hide. There is no mulligan for a bad jump, or second chance to eliminate the sting of a fall on ones ass. You cannot skip a shift and survivve in figure skating.dddddddddddd. It is what it is. These athletes accept that they are required to stand and deliver and when the dust settles they must live with the result. In the end, they must go it alone. The thing is, I felt completely helpless for Patrick Chan as he skated with a chance to be the Olympic champion. I have followed his career since the time he first won the national title seven years ago. Ive been there for each of his three world championships. He has never dodged a question and never given an excuse for something less than a perfect performance. He is, in my experience, a conscientious and hard-working young man who is supremely talented. Tonight, he came up short, and I know he wishes he could do it all over again … but he cant. Dave Campbell may have been right when he suggested that figure skating is the most difficult of the sports. Im convinced it is simultaneously the most beautiful and brutal. The judges reward you lavishly when you succeed, and they punish you ruthlessly when you dont. And they make you sit by yourself to await your fate on a giant-sized television screen so that everyone in the arena and around the globe knows what they think of you. Those are the facts when it comes to figure skating. And while Im disappointed for Patrick Chan and happy for Yuzuru Hanyu, Im astonished that the result has affected me the way it has. Its not like I havent witnessed something like this before. “Its just so thrilling,” Dave Campbell said. “And its causing me to lose sleep, but I cant get enough of it.” I feel the same way. Its the savage beauty of sport and the incredible attraction that the brave hearts who dare to venture onto the Olympic field of play hold for me. NFL Jerseys From China Jerseys NFL China Cheap Jerseys 2019 Wholesale Nike NFL Jerseys Cheap Jerseys 2019 Jerseys NFL Cheap Cheap Jerseys ' ' '