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Backstrom gives Wild shootout win over Oilers

Feb 9, 2009 - 1:15 AM ST. PAUL, Minnesota (Ticker) -- It took a shootout but Niklas Backstrom made sure the Minnesota Wild extended their home dominance over the Edmonton Oilers.

Backstrom turned aside 28 shots in regulation and stopped all four attempts in the shootout to lift Minnesota to a 3-2 win over Edmonton on Sunday.

After three scoreless rounds in the bonus format, Mikko Koivu beat Dwayne Roloson for the game-winning goal as the Wild defeated the Oilers for the ninth straight time at the Xcel Energy Center.

"Maybe we've got some confidence (against Edmonton)," Backstrom said of the streak. "Weird things happen in hockey and it's hard to explain anything. It always seems to be tough games against them."

The Oilers have lost four of five games overall.

"We battled pretty hard on this trip," Edmonton coach Craig MacTavish said. "Disappointed we didn't get the win, it would've been a great feeling leaving here with the win. We had pretty good opportunity with the power play in the overtime. Disappointing, but it's a big point."

Antti Miettinen and defenseman Marek Zidlicky were stopped by Roloson before blue-liner Brent Burns' attempt went off the post. Koivu then slipped a shot between the pads of Roloson to clinch the win for the Wild.

"Well, it's always tough to go against a goalie who knows you and kind of knows your moves too," Koivu said. "So you just try to make it fast and try to find the open spot there. He kind of blocked it, I think he got a piece of it. I don't really know. But I'm glad it went in."

Backstrom made saves against Sam Gagner, Robert Nilsson, Ales Hemsky and defenseman Tom Gilbert in the shootout to improve to 11-1-0 all-time against the Oilers.

"He goes post-to-post very well," MacTavish said of Backstrom. "Even when he's beat on a move, he still gets his legs to the post. The one thing we didn't do tonight that we did in St. Louis is we didn't get the puck up. That was our undoing tonight."

A power-play goal by All-Star defenseman Sheldon Souray put Edmonton ahead 6:26 into the first period, however Minnesota leveled the contest late in the first on a blast by Eric Belanger from the top of the left faceoff circle.

"It was a tight game, physical - and you know those are the type of games we have to win," Belanger said. "They are going to be that way the rest of the year."

Following a scoreless second period, the Wild claimed the lead on a shorthanded goal by Miettinen. The Finn blasted a one-timer from the left circle off a feed from Koivu 4:20 into the session.

Gagner scored his first goal in nine games off a rebound with 6:04 to tie the score at 2-2 and Roloson made 14 of his 37 saves in the third period to earn the point for Edmonton.

"I think the battle level was there," Gagner said. "Obviously, guys were playing with a lot of intensity and we've got something to prove in this game coming off our last loss. You can't discount everybody's effort in here. Roli (Roloson) played great again and it's a tough one to lose when you get into a shootout like that."

Roloson was coming off an awful performance against Detroit. He gave up five goals in the first period before being pulled in an 8-3 loss to the Red Wings on Saturday.