Wild hold off Blackhawks for 2-1 victory

Anaheim Ducks left-wing Dustin Penner (left) celebrates after scoring a goal against the Los Angeles Kings during the second period at Honda Center on Thursday. (Agencies)

AFP/Toronto

The Minnesota Wild got just enough offense via first period goals by right winger Jason Pominville and left winger Matt Cooke to outlast the Chicago Blackhawks 2-1 on Thursday.

Minnesota goaltender Darcy Kuemper, making his fifth consecutive start, stopped 33 shots as the Wild improved to 8-3-0 in their last 11 games.

Chicago got 17 saves from goaltender Antti Raanta, but could not solve Kuemper until just 31.2 seconds remained.

Right winger Patrick Kane got his 24th goal of the season with Raanta on the bench for an extra attacker.

‘‘I know we get geared up to play that team,’’ Wild coach Mike Yeo said. ‘’I think the fact that we’ve played them as much as we have, I think our guys are confident going into the game knowing we can play with them.

‘‘Obviously they’re such a great team, and we have so much respect for them, we haven’t taken any nights off against that hockey team.’’

Elsewhere, five different players scored goals as the Blue Jackets pushed their franchise record winning streak to eight games, routing the Philadelphia Flyers 5-2.

The win allowed the Blue Jackets to pass the Flyers and move into third place in the Metropolitan Division.

Defenseman Jack Johnson, center Derek MacKenzie, left winger Matt Calvert, centre Brandon Dubinsky and right winger Brandon Horton scored for the Blue Jackets, who had four consecutive goals in the final 28:36 of the game.

St. Louis Blues defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk scored the decisive goal in St. Louis’ 2-1 win over the Rangers.

Shattenkirk, 24, delivered a power-play goal at 3:09 of the third period that snapped a 1-1 for the Blues (34-11-5). The goal was St. Louis’ league best 42nd power-play goal this season.

Goaltender Jaroslav Halak stopped 34 shots for the Blues.

Goalie Henrik Lundqvist made 23 saves for New York (27-23-3).