With less than four minutes to go in regulation, Minnesota Wild captain Mikko Koivu tied the game to force overtime. Five minutes into overtime Koivu deflected Ryan Suter’s shot beat the Dallas Stars 5-4 and force Game 6.
“I can’t even believe they pay me for this job,” John Torchetti told the Star Tribune. “It’s so much fun. That’s what it’s all about.”
Koivu’s tying goal capped what was a back-and-forth game for the Wild, who were facing elimination in Game 5.
“[Koivu’s] overall game is as good as it gets,” added goalie Devan Dubnyk. “For him to step up like that for us is pretty awesome.”
Minnesota was up 2-0 behind goals from Jordan Schroeder and Mikael Granlund six minutes into the first period, but Johnny Oduya cut the lead to 2-1 late in the first.
Jamie Benn got the scoring going a minute into the third, tying the game 2-2. Nino Niederreiter scored less than a minute later to put the Wild up 3-2. Then, a little after the eight-minute mark, Jason Spezza and Alex Goligoski scored roughly 30 second apart to take a 4-3 lead.
Then Koivu worked his late-game magic to keep the Wild alive.
“We knew there was a lot of time left,” Koivu told the Pioneer Press. “We knew if we just kept pushing and pushing, we were going to get our chances too, and we did. We got rewarded.”
[Star Tribune, Pioneer Press]
