Streit notches second goal since joining Timberwolves
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Thunder Bay, Ont.- The Timberwolves closed out their 2010-11 regular season home games with a 2-1 win over the 10th place Wisborg Donuts.
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"It's great to finish how we started here and do this for our fans," said Timberwolves GM Blake Wendt. Thunder Bay opened the season with a 4-2 win over the North Dakota Ibex and then went 26-11-4 at Canadian National Gardens.
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Despite putting twelve shots on Wisborg's Johan Hedberg, Thunder Bay was unable to solve the Swedish netminder, and six saves by Brian Elliott held both clubs scoreless through twenty minutes of hockey. Elliott making his second consecutive start in favour of Henrik Lundqvist who is likely to start throughout the playoffs.
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Thunder Bay's Mark Streit [pictured] broke the ice at 14:26 into the second period to make it 1-0. The Swiss blueliner scored his sixteenth goal of the season and second since being acquired from Long Island while on the power play.
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Ethan Moreau took advantage of some rare minutes on the power play to make it 2-0 for the Timberwolves at 18:32. This being defensive-specialist Moreau's second goal of the season.
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Wisborg got themselves into the game at 11:22 into the third period with a tally from from Patric Hornqvist. But a combination of heads up saves by Elliott and his team in front of him keeping the pressure and the puck in the Donuts' zone helped hold the score and finalize a 2-1 victory over Wisborg.
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"You know what? This is exactly the game we need to be in to prepare for the post-season," remarked Wendt after the game. "Fans were in it. They're in playoff-mode already, and that's great. We held in there and despite being out-hit [36-20], we controlled the puck and kept pressure on them and put alot of rubber on their goalie. They scored late to make it close, but we didn't deflate and we just kept doing what we were doing and took two points out of it."
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The win moved the Timberwolves up one spot in the overall rankings from sixth to fifth and within two points of the fourth seat.
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"Just keep knocking out wins," said Wendt. "We want to climb as high as we can. But we really want to get going in the playoffs at full speed and with our game dialed in and be as healthy as possible." Part of being healthy is rest. In this game the Timberwolves sat Marc Savard, Rick Nash and captain, Keith Ballard. In Ballard's absence, Nick Schultz wore an 'A' along with Patrick Sharp and Mike Fisher.
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The Timberwolves conclude their regular season on the road with back-to-back games on Monday against the eleventh ranked Beverly Hills Lawmasters and Tuesday against the seventeenth ranked North Dakota Ibex.
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space3-STARS
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space*Mark Streit [THU] - Power play goal
spac**Paul Kariya [THU] - 9 shots on goal
spa***Brian Elliott [THU] - 21 saves
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