TIMBERWOLVES DEFEATHER BLACK WINGS

Gaborik's power play tally helps Wolves take down Wings

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Thunder Bay, Ont- Coming off of a long three-day weekend off, the Thunder Bay Timberwolves wasted no time getting back into a groove by scoring early and late to defeat the visiting Linz Black Wings by a 4-1 score in front of a capacity crowd at Canadian National Gardens.
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Mike Fisher broke the ice at 3:17 into the game for the Peterborough-native's 27th from Erik Johnson and TJ Oshie.
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At 14:22, Marian Gaborik [pictured] made it 2-0 with his 45th from Marc Savard and Mark Streit. Streit's assist was the Swiss blueliner's first point with the Timberwolves since being acquired just before the trade deadline.
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The Timberwolves took the two goal lead into the first intermission. Also outshooting the Black Wings 20-8.
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In the second period, Linz tightened there game up by limiting Thunder Bay's 15 total shots in the period to mostly non-lethal shots from the boards or long distanced shots on their goaltender, Ryan Miller. The Black Wings took advantage of that and pressed their offense and were rewarded at 17:21 when Jason Spezza broke away on Henrik Lundqvist and beat the Timberwolves goalie five hole, and cut the lead in half at 2-1 going into the second intermission.
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Not looking to let another third period get away in twice last week, Ales Hemsky took back the Linz goal at 8:37 for his 28th of the season.
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Blair Betts iced the game at 19:13 for the Edmonton-native's 10th and second in as many games to finish off the Black Wings 4-1.
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"You always want to get off to a good start after being on any extended breaks," said Timberwolves forward, Rick Nash after the game. "This is the time of year where every point in important and you want to keep your game going at the highest level and be as consistent as possible. We talked about it this morning and before the warm-up and we wanted to establish our game and our tempo and take it to them. Thought we accomplished that with Fish's [Fisher] goal and kept it going. Lundqvist was stellar again and we all just played a complete game and a good launching point for this back-to-back and the rest of the season."
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The Timberwolves immediately departed the Gardens and were wheels up from Thunder Bay International within 90 minutes of the final horn and en route for tomorrows game in the Czech capital against the Prague Piranhas [21-40-7].
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>>>3-STARS
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>>>*Mike Fisher [THU] - Goal
>>**Marian Gaborik [THU] - Power play goal
>***Ales Hemsky [THU] - Goal