No Parise, no problem for Wild in win over Canucks

ST. PAUL -- With Zach Parise at home because of an illness, Wild coach Bruce Boudreau was forced to shuffle his lines, slotting Charlie Coyle into Parise's spot on the team's second line next to Mikko Koivu and Nino Niederreiter.
The trio excelled together, accounting for half of Minnesota's goal output in a 6-2 victory against the Vancouver Canucks.

"[Parise's] a terrific player, so it's always tough if we don't have him in the lineup," Niederreiter said. "But it's obviously great we had a chance to step up and do some good things out there."

All three got the Wild out in front early, as Coyle and Koivu struck two minutes apart in the first eight minutes of the game with Niederreiter scoring off a pretty no-look dish from the captain just 1:46 into the second.

Minnesota knew if it could put Vancouver on the ropes early, it would have a good chance to win. The Canucks were playing in the final game of a six-game, 10-day road trip that spanned the continent.
Coyle's breakaway tally did just that, and was followed in short order by Koivu's gift from Canucks goaltender Richard Bachman, who put a clearing attempt right onto the tape of his stick blade near the hashes.
"It happens sometimes," Koivu said. "Mistakes are a part of the game. I'm sure he'd like to get that one back."

If Koivu was lucky on that goal, he was good on Niederreiter's power-play marker moments into the second. Controlling the action near the right-wing halfwall, Koivu looked off a defender then put a perfectly placed puck on Niederreiter's stick blade for a quick deflection that went under the crossbar.
Game. Set. Match.
"The whole message was, if we could come out in the first period and get a lead on them, they would just would just wanna go home," said Wild coach Bruce Boudreau. "They tried right to the end but a lot of it, their heart was a little down."
The trio of Coyle, Niederreiter and Koivu were puck hounds virtually all night, controlling play right from the drop of the puck. Koivu won 58 percent of his draws and the three spent a majority of their night penetrating the ice below the hashes.
"If you look at Nino and Charlie, that's their strength holding onto the puck down low and you need to support one another and I thought we did that tonight," Koivu said. "Obviously for [Coyle], that first one, it was a big goal for not just for him for the team to get that good start. As soon as you feel good, you want to work on it and keep going shift after shift."
Both Coyle and Niederreiter have been players in the past who feed off early goals, converting that confidence into strong games, and a strong game into strong stretches of games.

"You score and you feel good about yourself. But I think you do the right things and you get those chances you feed off that," Coyle said. "When I get in the game physically, throw a hit, get hit, whatever, get the chances, it really helps."
Despite the group's success, Boudreau said he expects Parise to slot right back into the same line once he returns, hopefully as soon as Saturday against the Buffalo Sabres.
But it's good to know he has another option should he need a quick boost in the future.
"It's only one game. I think when you're missing one guy, I think collectively you want to make sure that everyone's ready to go and trying to help one another," Koivu said. "But obviously you want a guy like him back as soon as possible and have him in the lineup. We're happy with the result but it's one game and now it's just again getting ready for the next one."
Related:
Postgame Hat Trick: Wild 6, Canucks 2