• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Harding, Demitra, Gaborik lead Wild over Oilers

Mar 2, 2007 - 6:52 AM EDMONTON, Alberta (Ticker) -- Minnesota Wild rookie goaltender Josh Harding is certainly taking advantage of his opportunity.

Harding made 30 saves for his second career shutout as the Wild posted a 5-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers.

Marian Gaborik and Pavol Demitra each scored twice for Minnesota, which is 5-1-1 in its last seven games and one point behind the first-place Vancouver Canucks in the Northwest Division.

"It's huge, this game, and everybody knew that in this dressing room," Demitra said. "We got off to a good start, and we just took over the game. Josh played great and gave us a chance to win the game. Obviously, now we've got three goalies, and it's nice to know that we've got three unbelievable goalies."

Harding is 1-0-1 this season in three appearances and has stopped 55-of-56 shots. He recorded one shutout in three games for the Wild last season.

"I'm ecstatic right now, and I'm sure when I'm lying in bed tonight, it will hit me even harder," Harding said. "The team did a great job in front of me, and it gets most of the credit for that shutout."

"The chances that they got, our goalie was just great," Minnesota coach Jacques Lemaire said. "They got great chances to score goals, but Josh was there and made big saves. I hope his frame of mind is good, because we don't have anybody else."

Harding is getting his chance because Minnesota goaltenders Niklas Backstrom and Manny Fernandez are injured. Backstrom left Wednesday's 2-1 overtime loss to the Calgary Flames with a lower body injury. Fernandez has been on injured reserve since February 1 with a knee injury.

Gaborik's first tally on the power play gave the Wild a 2-0 lead at 16:13 of the first period. He beat goaltender Dwayne Roloson from the right faceoff circle. Gaborik gave the Wild a 4-0 advantage at 13:21 of the third period when he beat netminder Jussi Markkanen from close range.

The right wing has eight goals and six assists in his last nine contests.

Demitra's 20th goal came at 11:23 of the first period, when he beat Roloson on a breakaway for a 1-0 lead. He capped the scoring with a power-play tally with 3:49 remaining in the contest. Demitra has 21 tallies this season and has scored 20 goals or more nine times in his career.

The right wing has 10 goals and 10 assists in his last 14 games.

The defending Western Conference champion Oilers are 2-5-2 in their last nine games. Edmonton has lost three straight while getting outscored, 12-1.

"Well, it's disappointing," Edmonton center Shawn Horcoff said. "I truly felt that with the attitude in the dressing room this morning, that we were going to come out with a good effort tonight and win the game."

Roloson allowed three goals on 19 shots and was pulled after two periods. He has lost three straight starts.

"We got outplayed," Edmonton center Petr Sykora said. "Against a team like Minnesota, it's hard to come back. I thought we had some momentum going into the second period. We had some scoring chances but we couldn't score."