Edmonton vs. Minnesota live blog

The Bee Movie Keys To The Game:

Minnesota: Score first, work the cycle, force turnovers.

Edmonton: Avoid, at all cost, scoring the games' first three goals in the first five minutes.

7:51 pm update: DAMMIT.

8:18 pm update: 3-1 lead, after the Wild scored their first (another lucky bounce) they clamped down pretty good. Calgary's not doing their part, yet...

8:41 pm update: 4-1, Brodziak off the Josh Harding giveaway. It's lame to say these things after the fact but as soon as the puck came to Harding, on a missed pass to Stortini up the middle, I had a feeling he was going to give it away. Maybe because he'd given the puck away on an earlier shift. Now 4-2 Wild on a long point shot; Roloson isn't getting many shots and while the ones he's getting aren't easy, he has to make some saves. 1-0 Avs too, get your act together Flamers.

9:11 pm update: 5-2 at the intermission, Cogliano off a beautiful pass from Gagner. 1-0 for Colorado over Calgary; Avs have a .862 winning percentage when leading going into the third period. Odds are against the Oilers gaining ground tonight, especially given their cursed three goal lead, but long odds have favored them lately.

I think it's interesting that, for a lot of the year, Andrew Cogliano was the rookie described as having a Todd Marchant-type ceiling, if a little more scoring touch. Cogliano heard that, said Yeah Right, and started scoring overtime winners like Jack Nicolson scores add-on jokes from Oscar hosts. The player who might fit the Marchant comparison better, to me, is Kyle Brodziak. This guy's a player; beautiful play in traffic to accept a pass then splits the defense for a breakaway. Like Marchant though, he's hit-or-miss on those breakaways and yet seems to get them ALL the time. He kills penalties, scores those tack-on goals that matter so much, blocks shots, forechecks well and doesn't get a lot of attention. He's certainly bigger and more physical than Marchant, but otherwise they're pretty similar players. They're not necessarily the same in style or appearance, but I really think their impact on the game is similar.

10:04 pm update: 5-3 final in Edmonton, 2-0 final in Denver. Stupid Flames. Oilers now three back of Colorado and Vancouver (Canucks have two games in hand) and they're in 9th place. Pretty good night, short of great but winning is always Super Terrific Good!