ST. PAUL, Minn. — Tempting as it might be to sulk or splinter his stick over the crossbar in anger, Marian Gaborik is keeping cool during the drought.
Minnesota’s gamebreaker and all-time leading scorer is without a goal or a point through four playoff games against Colorado.
With a team-high 15 shots, including 12 in the last two games, it’s not like Gaborik has been a ghost. But open ice is rare in the suffocating realm of postseason hockey, especially skating against the opposition’s top defensemen and checking forwards.
“That’s playoffs. Just keep working hard, drive to the net. Eventually, it’s got to go in,” Gaborik said Wednesday.
This has not been a problem in the past for Gaborik, who entered this series with 12 goals and 23 points in 21 career playoff games.
Turning other cheek.
There were plenty of elbows, face washes and shoving matches, revealed by Minnesota’s 111 penalty minutes in its Game 4 loss to the Avalanche.
Despite the Wild bunch’s best attempts, however, Derek Boogaard, Todd Fedoruk and Chris Simon have been unable to goad Colorado’s agitators into dropping their gloves for a fight.
“They have some guys that are playing their roles the right way,” Wild center Eric Belanger said. “You can’t let yourself get away from the game when their players are doing it. You’ve got to be smarter than them. We obviously know they’re not going to fight our tough guys. We’ve got to make sure those guys are not a factor in the way we play.”
St. Paul Pioneer Press
