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Bad blood brewing as Canucks visit Wild

Nov 21, 2007 - 3:11 PM Vancouver (10-8-2) at Minnesota (11-7-2) 8:00 pm EST

ST. PAUL, Minnesota (Ticker) - Less than a week after an ugly finish, the Vancouver Canucks and Minnesota Wild do not figure to play nice.

The Canucks travel to Xcel Energy Center on Wednesday to play the Wild for the second time in five days. On Friday, Vancouver handed Minnesota its worst loss of the season in a 6-2 win.

The game turned violent near the end when the Wild's Derek Boogaard and the Canucks' Willie Mitchell got into a fight. Tempers flared even more when Vancouver defenseman Mattias Ohlund purposely delivered a two-handed slash to Mikko Koivu after the Minnesota center threw an elbow to Ohlund's face.

Ohlund received a four-game suspension from the league and Koivu is out indefinitely with a cracked bone in his leg as a result of the slash.

Even though the Canucks lost 5-4 in a shootout to the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday, they gained at least one point for the seventh straight game (5-0-2).

On the other hand, Minnesota recovered from Friday's loss with a 4-1 victory over Colorado on Sunday. The Wild look to snap out of a 4-7-1 slide after collecting 15 of a possible 16 points in their first eight contests.