Minnesota Wild: Pominville Providing a Punch
Feb 28, 2015; Denver, CO, USA; Minnesota Wild right wing Jason Pominville (29) celebrates his goal past Colorado Avalanche goalie Semyon Varlamov (1) (not pictured) in the third period at the Pepsi Center. The Wild defeated the Avalanche 3-1. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports
The Minnesota Wild found themselves scoreless in Washington (which sounds like a terrible title to a movie) with less than ten minutes remaining against the Capitals last night. It was a listless game to that point. The team needed a spark and got one just in the knick of time. The jolt came from Jason Pominville, with a major assist (literally and figuratively) from Zach Parise.
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Pominville netted two goals in five minutes and the Wild were able to hang on down the stretch to win 2-1. The Capitals were without Alexander Ovechkin who had the always mysterious lower body injury. Still, Washington is a very good team so the win was nothing to sneeze at.
Pominville has been a major contributor for the Wild ever since he was brought over from the Buffalo Sabres a couple of seasons ago to join the team for the playoff push. He has scored 30 goals in a season, plays big minutes on the power play and can play on multiple lines.
In many ways, Pominville is a good representation of a lot of the Wild’s forwards: Flexible, hard working and can put the puck in the net. Another similarity to many of his teammates is that he is not a very large man, at 6′-0″ and 186 pounds. Still, he is not shy about back checking or digging pucks out of the corner.
The Wild employ Parise and Ryan Suter, two big stars in the NHL. There is no doubt that they are a huge part of the success or failure of this team but the Wild are not a super star driven team. They need production from every part of the roster to compete with the top teams in the league. The next tier players like Pominville and others are critical to the success of the Wild.
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The outline for this team ever since bringing Parise and Suter onboard has been clear: Bring in select veterans to supplement the team and allow the young talent to grow from within. So far, so good. This plan would not be working without the key contributions from the veterans Chuck Fletcher has brought in. Pominville is one of the most important pieces to that puzzle.
With Devan Dubnyk playing lights out the Wild are playing like the best team in the NHL. To sustain this through the playoffs they will need continued contributions across the board. The sky is the limit when they play as well as they have the past month.