After Wild were unable to beat Talbot on seven shots on an overtime 4-on-3, Staal scored the shootout winner and Dubnyk sealed the deal as the Wild beat the Oilers

As Bruce Boudreau joked, it took “a lot of praying” to keep the NHL’s teenage leading scorer, Connor McDavid, off the score sheet Sunday night.
Five nights later, the Wild must have found another house of worship again.
Not only did McDavid go without a point for a second straight meeting, his turnover led to a third-period goal by the Wild, he took a penalty in overtime and he couldn’t beat Devan Dubnyk to win the game in an eventual shootout.
But after the Wild was unable to beat Cam Talbot on seven shots on an overtime 4-on-3, Eric Staal scored the shootout winner and Dubnyk sealed the deal as the Wild beat the Oilers, 3-2, after a six-round shootout.
The Wild, playing in their fifth overtime in nine games, improved to 5-1-3 in its past nine. This, after Talbot made nine saves in overtime, plus Charlie Coyle and Staal hit posts.
After McDavid’s turnover led to Jason Zucker’s go-ahead goal early in the third period, the Wild were forced to kill back-to-back penalties late in the period. The Wild held Edmonton to one shot on the first power play, but nine seconds into Matt Dumba’s holding penalty on McDavid, Ryan-Nugent Hopkins tied the score and forced overtime by wristing a shot through Patrick Maroon’s screen.
During its first home game since Nov. 25, the Wild also got a goal from Zucker and 25 saves from Dubnyk.
It was Minnesota’s third consecutive home win.
Dubnyk, the NHL’s leading in goals-against average and save percentage, improved to 8-1 against the Oilers, who 12 years ago drafted him in the first round. He has not allowed more than three goals in a game this season. He has allowed 25 goals in his past 18 starts.
The Wild improved to 12-3-1 in their past 16 games against the Oilers and 22-4-1 in its last 27 home games against the Oilers since Feb. 25, 2007.
Minnesota got a lot of unsung efforts. It didn’t get a point, but the fourth line of Chris Stewart-Tyler Graovac-Kurtis Gabriel had its best game since assembled in Calgary last week. They were physical, provided scoring chances and lots of play in the offensive zone.
The Wild also blocked 22 shots, led by Coyle’s five.
The Wild were 55 seconds away from getting out of the first period scoreless, but the Erik Haula line, which had a strong period, got flat-footed coming back down the ice after a forecheck. Defenseman Jared Spurgeon was unable to intercept Benoit Pouliot’s pass to Leon Draisaitl, and after Dubnyk made a fantastic save on the red-hot forward’s first attempt, Draisaitl scored on his own rebound.
It was his sixth goal in the past six games and the second time in the past seven games the Wild had been scored on first. The previous time was Sunday’s come-from-behind overtime win in Edmonton.
The Wild out-attempted the Oilers 21-18 in the period, but only six shots reached goalie Cam Talbot. Fifteen others were either blocked or missed the net, a lot of those where the Wild had no choice but to fire wide because the Oilers did a great job packing it in and getting in shooting lanes.
A perfect example was the shift before the goal when the Zach Parise-Staal-Coyle buzzed. Good pressure, but no goals.
The Wild’s passing was also suspect. On one power play earned by a great shift from the fourth line, Ryan Suter couldn’t set up Jason Pominville for a good one-timer. Coyle was off the mark with a handful of passes in the period, and Suter, Dumba and Marco Scandella had glaring turnovers.
The Wild didn’t exactly get off to a strong start in the second period, but Dubnyk was good early and ultimately the Wild tied the score on Dumba’s third goal of the season and first at 5-on-5.
Nino Niederreiter’s good work along the wall set up the chance after he spun away from Jordan Eberle. He crossed a pass to the far point for Dumba, who slid right and whistled a beauty through traffic.
With the way the Oilers were clogging the middle of the zone, tiptoeing the blue line was about the only way to get pucks through on this night.
The Wild finally took a 2-1 lead early in the third on Zucker’s second goal in two games and eighth point in eight games. He had actually just fouled up a 2-on-1 by passing behind Mikael Granlund, but with Koivu pressuring, McDavid dropped a puck to Granlund, who fed Zucker in front.

Results
Capitals 4 Sabres 1; Blues 4 Devils 1; Blue Jackets 4 Red Wings 1; Oilers 2 Wild 3;
Rangers 1 Blackhawks 0; Sharks 2 Ducks 3