Sunday, in a game against the San Jose Sharks, Zach Parise and Jason Pominville returned from their bout with the mumps and the Wild finally got to see what their lineup looked like with its full allotment of forwards following the acquisition for Martin Hanzal and Ryan White a week earlier.
Facing the formidable Pacific Division leader that represented the Western Conference in last season’s Stanley Cup Final, coach Bruce Boudreau unveiled three tweaked lines, some fresh special teams units and watched his team grind out a well-earned 3-1 win at Xcel Energy Center despite having to play short a defenseman for 50 minutes.
The Wild rode first-period goals by Parise and Eric Staal, 20 saves from Devan Dubnyk and a 4 for 4 penalty kill to leapfrog Chicago and retake the West and Central Division lead by a point with two games in hand.
Staal, who entered the game with one goal in his previous 18 games, iced the game with an empty-netter.
The Wild snapped the Sharks’ eight-game point streak and handed them only their third regulation loss in the past 21 games.
Minnesota, coming off a 1-0 loss in Columbus, avoided consecutive regulation losses for the first time since Nov. 15 and 5 and improved to 16-3-2 following a loss of any kind this season, including 10 straight wins.
The news wasn’t all good for the Wild.
Defenseman Christian Folin looked to serious injure his right arm, maybe his wrist, midway through the first period when he lost his footing chasing a Joe Pavelski dump-in and crashed violently into the end wall after a nudge by Kevin Labanc.
Folin left the game in visible agony and the Wild played the final 50:11 with five defensemen.
Boudreau tinkered with his lines heading into the game, not only skating Eric Staal in between Chris Stewart and Parise, but both forwards on their off-wing. Parise has rarely played right wing with the Wild.
Martin Hanzal centered Nino Niederreiter and Charlie Coyle, and Pominville skated with White and Erik Haula.
“There’s reasons why we do everything,” Boudreau said the day before. “Hopefully by the 10-game mark we could solidify our lines going into the playoffs. That’s our goal.”
The Wild jumped out to a 1-0 lead on Parise’s 15th goal after Folin’s injury. On the ensuing power play, Parise slapped his stick on the ice to get Pominville’s attention, and Parise came through with a perfectly-executed redirection. It was Parise’s seventh goal in his past 12 games after eight in his first 39.
The Wild would make it 2-0, but only after Martin Jones made the most fluky of saves on Chris Stewart. After a Stewart shot, the puck entered Jones’ jersey through the neck hole and got caught in his collar behind his neck just at the goal line.
But, not long after, defenseman Matt Dumba found Staal in the slot with a beautiful spinning back-hander from the corner. Staal buried his second goal in 19 games _ first with a goalie in net.
However, just 23 seconds later, Marco Scandella took a high-sticking penalty. The Wild killed the minors terrifically, then Scandella had a chance to make it 3-0 when he was hit for a breakaway coming out of the penalty box.
Martin Jones’ denied Scandella slap shot, which proved big because with 1:34 left, Justin Braun slid down the wall and was the tic in a beautiful tic-tac-toe goal by the fourth line. Mikko Koivu gave Melker Karlsson too much room, and he buried Micheal Haley’s feed.
The Wild had multiple chances to turn their 2-1 lead into 3-1 leads, including on a 3:54 power play to start the second period and 1:20 of carried-over power-play time to start the third.
The Wild’s power play couldn’t convert beyond the Parise goal, but their penalty kill, which is 21 for 21 the past 10 games, more than made up for it.
RESULTS
Carolina 2 Arizona 1
Vancouver 2 Anaheim 1
St. Louis 3 Colorado 0
Minnesota 3 San Jose 1
Columbus 3 New Jersey 0
Pittsburgh 4 Buffalo 3
Calgary 5 NY Islanders 2
Minnesota Wild forward Eric Staal (left) celebrates his goal in the third period against the San Jose Sharks in Saint Paul, Minnesota, on Sunday. (USA TODAY Sports)
