ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) -The Minnesota Wild will be without two of their top scorers, Pavol Demitra and Mikko Koivu, for Wednesday’s game against the rival Vancouver Canucks.
Demitra, whose status is evaluated daily, will try to participate in the morning skatearound but will miss his eighth game in the last 10 due to a groin injury.
Koivu, who has a cracked bone in his leg, will sit out for the second straight game and is due to be evaluated again this weekend.
Because of Koivu’s condition, Wednesday’s game is expected to be testy. The Wild were livid about the two-handed slash Koivu took to the back of the leg from Canucks defenseman Mattias Ohlund last Friday.
Ohlund, who said he was retaliating for an elbow he took to the face from Koivu, got a four-game suspension from the NHL for his action. The Canucks also claimed other cheap shots came from the Wild in last week’s game.
Wild enforcer Derek Boogaard complained that several Canucks were roughing up his team’s stars and afraid to get physical with him. Boogaard said he might check captain Markus Naslund and top forwards Daniel and Henrik Sedin.
Top scoreres Demitra, Koivu out for Wild against Canucks
