St. Paul, Minn. – Brett Clark tried to be philosophical.
The Avalanche defenseman had just played yeoman’s minutes and had three blocked shots in a 3-2 overtime loss to Minnesota on Sunday, but he was victimized on the Wild’s second goal – the second from Mikko Koivu – when Marian Gaborik poked the puck from Clark behind the net.
“He was hooking the stick and poked it,” Clark said. “It was a good play by him and he didn’t give up. I couldn’t get hold of it, and he poked it right to Pavol Demitra, and they threw it right out front. But they got a couple of lucky bounces, off Kurt (Sauer) and off the post and in. That’s the way the game goes sometimes….
“We’ll take a point, but it’s always nice to get that second point. We’re fighting tooth and nail right now.”
Sauer again filled in for Karlis Skrastins, who missed his seventh straight game with a knee injury, as Clark’s defensive partner and had a team-high ice time of 28:30.
Penalty
After the game, the Avs were just getting wind of the suspension handed out to former Colorado winger Chris Simon of the Islanders for his stick attack on the Rangers’ Ryan Hollweg last Thursday.
The suspension would last the regular season and any Islanders’ run in the playoffs, then extend into next season if necessary to get Simon to a total of 25 games.
“That’s a lot, but on the other hand, it’s not that much,” winger Ian Laperriere said. “You don’t want to see those incidents in the game. Twenty-five games is a lot, but he almost took his head off. They make those decisions (at the NHL), I don’t, but hopefully it’s going to be a lesson for everyone around the league.”
State of hockey
The Wild-Avalanche game followed the boys hockey high school state tournament into the Xcel Energy Center. After a long run as a one-class tournament, it was split into two classifications in the 1990s. On Saturday night, in front of a crowd of 17,567 and a statewide television audience, the Roseau Rams – from a town 10 miles from the Canadian border with a population of slightly less than 3,000 – defeated Grand Rapids 5-1 to win the 2A championship. Roseau contributed the Broten brothers – Neal, Aaron and Paul – to the NHL. Neal, a star on the 1980 Miracle on Ice team, still is the only player to be on NCAA, NHL and Olympic championship teams. The Rams compete in the larger-school division out of choice, not because of their enrollment. In the afternoon, 7,596 fans saw Hermantown beat Duluth Marshall for the 1A title.
