Tonight was Ottawa’s home opener and they completed a comeback victory over the visiting Minnesota Wild. Other than part of the first period, Ottawa dominated the Wild despite falling behind 2-0 and 3-1 and once again refused to quit when behind. Looking at the goals (the box score is here link):
1. Minnesota, Kyle Brodziak
Miscommunication between Da Costa and Alfredsson meant there was no one on the wing to receive Rundblad‘s clear along the boards; in fairness to all, Brodziak‘s tip for the goal was excellent
2. Minnesota, Devin Setoguchi (pp)
Gonchar made a weak clear along the boards shorthanded and then left the slot open for Setoguchi to wire it home
3. Ottawa, Nick Foligno (Regin, Neil)
Erik Karlsson keeps the puck in at the blueline and then board work by Regin leads to Foligno getting it to the net
4. Minnesota, Nick Johnson
Scramble in front and Spezza accidentally knocks the puck into the net off Rundblad
5. Ottawa, Chris Neil (Regin, Phillips)
Phillips keeps the puck in at the blueline, Regin takes it to the net and Neil fires it home
6. Ottawa, Colin Greening (Michalek, Karlsson) (pp)
Greening corals the puck off a rebound, gets it to the point, and then bangs in the puck after a Karlsson shot
There were a lot of good performances, so quickly I’ll go through players who did not have great nights:
Sergei Gonchar – made mental errors; I really wonder if he can handle the criticism that’s been levelled at him
Zenon Konopka – while he did some good things, he started a pointless fight in the first period and which gave the Wild a powerplay (a view The Team 1200‘s Murray Wilson agrees with)
Jason Spezza – far too many turnovers tonight; he wasn’t terrible, but he needs to be better
There are a lot of positives from tonight, but the most notable:
Chris Neil – he was physical, he was hard on the puck, he scored–a great game
Peter Regin – a great first game of the season playing hard on both sides of the puck
Colin Greening – enjoyed a fantastic game and looked like the player we saw at the end of last season
Daniel Alfredsson – lead the team in scoring chances and won the game in the shootout
Chris Phillips – no serious errors in his game tonight, which is a big change from the previous two
David Rundblad – played more than his partner (Phillips) and a lot more than his rookie counterpart (Cowen); he was solid and handled the physicality of the game; he wasn’t perfect, but there was a lot to like
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eyeonthesens 
Ottawa showed more character than I thought they had this season. Sergie is having a awful start to the season and it could get worse. All in all a good game to watch and Ottawa deserved to win this game withoug overtime and a shoot-out.