Minnesota Wild

It's been a long season and a long week for the Wild, and frustration has clearly begun to set in.

Thursday, during one of the team's most intense practices this season, players smashed glass with sticks, snapped sticks in half and let expletives fly.

The physical practice, atypical for a day before a game, included lots of lectures from a heated coach.

"The way the game went last night, there was reason for it to be intense," said coach Todd Richards, referring to Wednesday's loss to Phoenix. "I watched the game again, and it was probably worse than what I remembered."

After tossing and turning all night, Richards said it's time for things to change.

"The way that I handle certain things, the way I communicate and probably my tone (will change)," Richards said. "The one thing I've been pretty consistent throughout is I've been very supportive and I've been also protective of the players. And it's gotten us to where we're at now."

The Wild responded with probably its gutsiest victory of the season Friday night, rallying to beat the New York Islanders 3-2 with six regulars out of the lineup.

"You're going to have lots of injuries and lots of adversity throughout a season," Richards said. "This is just something we're going through. You can sit back and go, 'He's out and he's out and he's out.' Bottom line is you've got to find a way to win a game."

WILD 3, ISLANDERS 2: Owen Nolan, the No. 1 overall pick in the 1990 draft (the same year Islanders No. 1 pick John Tavares was born), scored two goals, including the game-winner with 1:07 remaining Friday night to snap the Wild's four-game winless streak with a 3-2 win. Mikko Koivu scored the game-tying goal on a power play, snapping the Wild's 0 for 21 string with the man advantage at home, seven minutes into the third period. With six regulars out of the lineup, including Martin Havlat and Brent Burns, it took every ounce of effort for the Wild to win. "You can't use (injuries) as crutches," Nolan said. "It gives the young guys great opportunities to step up and show what they've got. They've got to bring the energy and they did a great job of that."

• New York Islanders phenom John Tavares says that Wild RW Cal Clutterbuck, who led the NHL with 356 hits last season, has one of the best shots coming off the wing in the NHL. Clutterbuck and Tavares played together as linemates for two years at OHL Oshawa.

  "It's just like the way he hits. He's a very thick guy, and that's what makes his shot so powerful," said Tavares, the NHL's leading rookie scorer. "He's got a great snap shot coming down the wing. Maybe it's not like Ovechkin's in the sense of how hard, but he's got the same kind of torque and velocity in how he puts everything he has into it.

  "It's very hard. He gets a lot behind it."

  Clutterbuck prides himself on his snap shot, saying he's "put a lot of man hours before and after practice skating around and shooting from everywhere at different angles and trying to hit the top parts of the net because these days goalies are always on their knees."

• Clutterbuck, one of the league's most renowned trash talkers, planned to get in his old pal Tavares' ear all night Friday.

  "Just to get him thinking, I'll be in his ear," Clutterbuck said, laughing. "I know too many things about him, so it'll be easy. Some of them I probably won't even use because I'd probably break his heart if I did. I'll make sure to tell him I still run his show."

• Hall of Fame NHL executive Cliff Fletcher attended Friday's game vs. the Islanders. He's the father of Wild GM Chuck Fletcher.

• The Wild has lost 65 man games to injury through 22 games.

Quote To Note:

"The way things were going, it wasn't much fun at the rink lately. To have four days to think about this one, I think it could be a big turning point for us."

—Wild C Eric Belanger after the Wild's 3-2 win over the Islanders on Friday.

Goaltenders:

Niklas Backstrom, Josh Harding.

Defensemen:

Greg Zanon, Nick Schultz, Marek Zidlicky, Kim Johnsson, Shane Hnidy, John Scott.

First Line:

Andrew Brunette, Mikko Koivu, Antti Miettinen.

Second Line:

Owen Nolan, Eric Belanger, James Sheppard.

Third Line:

Robbie Earl, Kyle Brodziak, Cal Clutterbuck.

Fourth Line:

Derek Boogaard, Nathan Smith, Danny Irmen.

Player Notes:

• LW Owen Nolan scored two goals Friday night vs. the Islanders for his 75th career multi-goal game. He also scored his 51st game-winner, and now has 412 goals in 18 seasons.

• C Mikko Koivu tied the score with his sixth goal on a power play and now has 18 points in the past 17 games.

• C Eric Belanger had two assists for his first points since Oct. 31.

• RW Martin Havlat, who signed a six-year, $30 million in the offseason, has one goal and two assists in 16 games since Oct. 8. But Havlat has been playing with a nagging hamstring injury lately and was pulled from the lineup Friday against the Islanders.

  Havlat became the fifth Wild forward (Petr Sykora, Benoit Pouliot, Chuck Kobasew and Pierre-Marc Bouchard) to be sidelined due to injury.

• The Wild recalled C Nathan Smith from AHL Houston. Smith played six scoreless games earlier this season, winning 60.6 percent of his faceoffs.

  "We need more of (his) battle and compete and grit," coach Todd Richards said.

• C James Sheppard jumped from the fourth line to the second line and played wing Friday.

  "It'll be a chance to hopefully get some more shots," said Sheppard, who's got no goals on 13 shots this season. "As a winger, I think I'll get to the net more and not be worrying too much about being high. It's always on my mind staying high so I can be responsible. I'm excited to get more minutes."

• D John Scott was inserted into the lineup Friday night because of an illness to D Brent Burns.

Medical Watch:

• RW Martin Havlat missed Friday's game vs. the Islanders with a strained hamstring. He hopes to play in the next home game against Boston on Wednesday.

• D Brent Burns didn't play Friday night due to an illness, the team said.

• LW Benoit Pouliot was placed on injured reserve Friday and missed his third game in a row with a hand injury. He's been skating on his own.

• LW Chuck Kobasew is out with an upper-body injury. He missed his fourth straight game Friday. He's been skating on his own.

• C/RW Pierre-Marc Bouchard remains out indefinitely with a concussion. He hasn't played since the season opener in Columbus on Oct. 3.

• LW Petr Sykora missed his sixth straight game Friday with a concussion. He's on injured reserve.