Clevenger out despite getting him caught

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ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Mikko Koivu gets his share of criticism for not being a more prolific goal scorer. A few more games like this and those critics will go away in a hurry. Koivu scored twice and Matt Cullen netted the winner in the shootout as the Minnesota Wild beat the St. Louis Blues 3-2 on Saturday night. Koivu tied the game with 1:38 to play with a power-play goal, and then scored in the shootout. "I dont understand the scrutiny. I dont get it," Wild coach Mike Yeo said. "The guy is the captain of our team. The guy is a complete team-first guy. Its unfair to expect a guy to go out and score and do all these things night in and night out, but what you can expect is that youre going to play for the team. Hes been doing that. "He gives us a chance to win every game because of the way he plays the game, and its great to see him get rewarded." Minnesotas Josh Harding turned away Kevin Shattenkirk in the tiebreaker, and the Northwest Division-leading Wild won for the ninth time in 11 games. The Wilds 27 points are the teams most through 20 games in its 11 NHL seasons. Minnesota has won five straight at home for the first time since March 15-April 3, 2008, when the Wild went on a six-game streak. T.J. Oshie and David Backes scored for St. Louis, which has lost four straight road games. The Blues also lost to the Wild on Nov. 5, and then fired coach Davis Payne the next day. St. Louis is 4-0-2 under new coach Ken Hitchcock. Oshie made it 2-1 with 13:53 to play in regulation, but the Wild continued their late-game heroics. Minnesota is 8-2-3 in one-goal games. "The last 10 minutes, shift after shift, we went after them and created the momentum," Koivu said. "It gives you confidence if you have chances." St. Louis took a 1-0 lead halfway through the first period on Backes seventh goal. Seconds after Harding denied Jason Arnott from close range, Oshie fired a slap shot, and Backes poked in the rebound. "You give them momentum, they took it and they played well," Backes said. "They kept coming, and thats why theyre so successful, they hang around, hang around and they bury their opportunities." Koivu tied it at 2:37 of the second with a short-handed goal, his second of the season and his first at home since March 20. Koivu swiped the puck from Patrik Berglund, flashed in front of the net and beat surprised goalie Jaroslav Halak in the upper right corner of the net. It was the first goal in six games allowed by the Blues in the second or third periods. "You could just see it on the bench, everyone was so jacked up," Wild defenceman Justin Falk said. "Everyone was so excited for Mikko. We wanted to see him get rewarded." The previous game between these teams was filled with penalties, including one stretch in which 11 players were in the penalty box. Only four penalties were called Saturday, but the last one was big. Arnott was whistled for slashing at 18:12 of the third, setting up the power play that led to Koivus tying goal past Halak. "Two minutes to go, you cant take a penalty there. Youve got to be able to fight through it," Hitchcock said. "Its a physical game, youve got to be able to play physical, cant be reaching and stuff like that." Halak stopped 30 shots, including a sprawling left-pad save on Cal Clutterbuck in the third that would have tied it with eight minutes left. "He was stellar in net. We shouldve got the win for him," Blues defenceman Barret Jackman said. Harding got the start over regular goalie Niklas Backstrom, who is 4-0-1 with a .960 save percentage in his last five games. NOTES: Wild D Marco Scandella skated in the morning, but missed his fourth consecutive game because of a concussion. Defenceman Marek Zidlicky missed his second straight game, and LW Guillaume Latendresse his fourth also because of concussions. ... Blues D Ian Cole played after being a healthy scratch the previous three games. ... Blues D Ryan Reaves used the back of his left hand to swat a flying puck past Harding midway through the second period. Reaves, who doesnt have a point this season, grinned as referee Stephen Walkom immediately waved off the goal. Louis Delmas Jersey . -- Former NHL all-star Joe Sakic picked a good spot for his first career hole-in-one -- a US$1 million two-hopper into the cup on the waterfront par-3 17th at the American Century Celebrity Golf Championship at Lake Tahoe on Sunday. Barry Sanders Jersey . 1 fullback. The decision was emotional for coach Graham Henry because Muliaina is the second most-capped All Black ever on 98 tests, but neither he nor his fellow selectors could resist Daggs quality performances in his only two tests this year and picked him to meet France this weekend in a World Cup pool match. www.matthewstaffordjerseys.com/Youth-Larry-Warford-Jersey/ . It seemed to have worked Saturday as Adam Lind hit a grand slam and drove in five runs and Ricky Romero allowed two hits over seven innings in a 11-2 rout over the Los Angeles Angels and their ace Jered Weaver. Calvin Johnson Jersey . Puig ended his sensational first month in the major leagues with his first four-hit game, Stephen Fife scattered four hits over seven scoreless innings and the Dodgers beat the Phillies 6-1 Sunday to take three of four in the series. Tony Scheffler Jersey . Francis earned his first victory in more than a month and the Rockies used two unearned runs to beat Ian Kennedy and the Arizona Diamondbacks 2-1 on Wednesday night to conclude disappointing seasons for both teams. MILWAUKEE -- Forget ending his epic winless streak. For a while, Ryan Dempster was thinking about throwing a perfect game. Dempster retired the first 15 batters he faced and went on to earn his first win since last August, throwing seven innings of three-hit ball as the Chicago Cubs beat the Milwaukee Brewers 10-0 on Tuesday night. "Yeah, I was thinking about a perfect game for sure," Dempster said. "Im not an idiot. I know that I hadnt had anybody on base. But its the second-best thing: a win right here." Coming into Tuesdays game, Dempster (1-3) had gone 18 straight starts without a victory -- a streak dating to Aug. 16 of last season. Dempster broke his winless streak in dominant fashion, not allowing a baserunner until Cody Ransom singled to lead off the sixth. Alfonso Soriano hit a three-run home run, Jeff Baker added a two-run shot and Bryan LaHair hit a solo homer for the Cubs, who snapped an 11-game road losing streak. Chicagos road slide matched a franchise record set in 1954. "It felt nice," Dempster said. "Its been a while. But it feels nice because were sitting here, were on a huge road losing streak and everything. It was nice to go out there and win a game like that, and see everybody, the guys played great on defence and hit the ball and they made all the plays and scored a bunch of runs." It wasnt a shock for Dempster to break the streak against the Brewers. Coming into Tuesdays game, he had a 15-6 career record against Milwaukee with a 2.75 ERA. And he had plenty of support from a significant number of Cubs fans who made the drive up I-94. "For some reason, Miller Park against the Brewers, he does a heck of a job," said Cubs manager Dale Sveum, a former coach in Milwaukee. "Obviously, I had to witness a lot of it." Dempster wasnt pitching terribly during his winless streak, posting a 3.95 ERA over those 18 starts. "Its not like hes pitched bad," Sveum said. "Hes pitched pretty good (in) whatever, 80, 90 per cent of his starts hes done pretty well." But the Cubs had scored three runs or fewer in 16 of those games. Scoring runs for Dempster wasnt a problem for the Cubs on Tuesday, as they got five runs in six innings off of Brewers starter Yovani Gallardo (4-5). Ryan Braun was back in the lineup for the Brewers after missing two straight starts because of a nagging right Achilless injury, plus a strained right hip that took him out of Fridays game.dddddddddddd Braun appeared as a pinch-hitter Sunday, and the team was off Monday. In the first, Gallardo allowed a one-out single to Starlin Castro, then walked David DeJesus. Soriano then hit a pitch just over the fence in right field, his ninth of the season, to give the Cubs a 3-0 lead. Castro had three hits and a flawless night in the field after earning Sveums ire for not knowing how many outs there were on a play in Mondays loss at San Francisco. "I listened to him, because its my fault," Castro said. As Dempster cruised through the first four innings, the Cubs took a 4-0 lead in the fourth when LaHair hit his 11th homer of the season. Gallardo gave up another run in the fifth. With one out, Tony Campana reached first on an infield hit after Gallardo and first baseman Corey Hart got crossed up on a ground ball. Campana then took third on a single by Castro, and went home on a sacrifice bunt by DeJesus. Gallardo struck out Soriano to end the inning. Meanwhile, Dempster continued to mow down Brewers batters, throwing only 62 pitches through five innings. He finally gave up a single to Ransom to start the sixth, then a two-out single to Carlos Gomez, but he got Norichika Aoki to fly out to end the inning without allowing a run. "It would have been fun," Dempster said. "But five innings is just five innings." Things really fell apart for Milwaukee in the eighth. After an RBI single by Steve Clevenger left runners on first and second with two outs, Darwin Barney hit a bloop single that scored Soriano -- and the Brewers couldnt tag Clevenger out despite getting him caught in a rundown. Brewers reliever Tim Dillard intentionally walked Ian Stewart to load the bases, then walked pinch-hitter Adrian Cardenas to make the score 8-0. Campana grounded out to end the inning. Appearing as a pinch hitter in the ninth, Baker made it 10-0 with a two-run shot, his first homer of the year. Notes: Gallardo had 10 strikeouts, the 16th double-digit strikeout game of his career and first this season. ... Brewers third baseman and longtime Cubs slugger Aramis Ramirez was out of the starting lineup with a left quadriceps strain.... LHP Paul Maholm (4-4, 4.82) faces RHP Zack Greinke (6-2, 3.46) in the second game of the series Wednesday night. ' ' '