The festivities clearly gave the Wild new life, and shortly after, Minnesota was generating sustained pressure in the Philadelphia end. From there, it was only a matter of time until we had a tie game, and defenseman Brent Burns made it happen with a blazing slap shot from the top of the left faceoff circle. While Backlund most definitely should have stopped the shot, it was Clutterbuck who successfully got the Flyers off of their game, leading to the pressure and ultimately the goal.

They keep showing the Richards hit on Belanger on the jumbotron, much to the fans’ delight. Game ops people are as classy here in Philly.

The low-light of the night came early in the third period. Braydon Coburn must have ticked off the wrong old man, because after a little battle along the endboards with 37-year-old Owen Nolan, the two dropped the gloves. Soon after, Nolan dropped Coburn with a left and down he went. Embarrassing, and Minnesota even got a power play out of the deal.

On that ensuing power play, Clutterbuck would ram home a pass from Pierre-Marc Bouchard to tie the score at three. The Flyers would then control most of the period before an unfortunate bounce off the skate of Ryan Parent found the back of the net, giving Minnesota the lead. Briere would tie it on a heads-up play in front of Backstrom, picking up a loose rebound, circling behind the net, and depositing the rubber into an empty goal before the goalie even knew what was going on.

The 4-4 game would find its way to a shootout, despite a Peco Power Play in overtime. Richards and Briere each scored, but the Wild would take the win thanks to Backlund's ugly play at the other end.