St. Paul, MN (AP) - The Minnesota Wild will send five of
their players to the World Hockey Championships in Canada. The
tournament begins this weekend.
      Defenseman Brent Burns will play for the Canadians. Goalie
Niklas Backstrom and center Mikko Koivu are on
Finland's team. Two minor-leaguers, Morten Madsen and Julien
Springer, will play for Denmark and Switzerland, respectively.
      Notably missing from the list is star right wing Marian Gaborik,
who has an injury described by the Wild last week as
a "hip deficiency." Slovakia was disappointed, but the team wants
him to rest.