NHL - Wild - Round Up - December 27-31, 2016

Wild @ Nashville Predators 3-2 OT - Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Jared Spurgeon scored at 2:46 of overtime to give the Minnesota Wild a 3-2 victory against the Nashville Predators at Bridgestone Arena on Tuesday, extending their winning streak to 11 games. Jordan Schroeder passed the puck across the ice to Spurgeon, and he beat Predators goaltender Pekka Rinne on a one-timer for his third goal. Zach Parise gave the Wild a 1-0 lead at 5:53 of the first period on a redirection in front of the net on the power play. He tipped defenseman Matt Dumba's shot from the point past Rinne for his sixth goal. Predators forward Filip Forsberg tied the game 1-1 at 4:39 of the second period on a wrist shot from the slot. Forward Ryan Johansen passed the puck to Forsberg, who beat Wild goaltender Devan Dubnyk for his sixth goal. Chris Stewart gave the Wild a 2-1 lead at 6:01 on a wrist shot from the slot. It was his sixth goal. Predators forward Reid Boucher tied the game 2-2 at 8:55 on a backhand shot on a breakaway. Forward Austin Watson chipped the puck out of the defensive zone and Boucher retrieved it and beat Dubnyk for his first goal of the season. Wild forward Erik Haula returned to the lineup after missing three games with a lower-body injury. Predators defenseman P.K. Subban missed a fifth consecutive game with an upper-body injury. Dubnyk made 28 saves, and Rinne had 36. Stewart's goal came on a tic-tac-toe passing play from Schroeder to Eric Staal to Stewart. Schroeder took the puck wide and passed to Staal in the left faceoff circle, and Staal slid it to Stewart in the slot.

* Dubnyk made a glove save on Predators forward James Neal at 15:46 of the third period when he redirected defenseman Ryan Ellis' shot from above the right faceoff circle.

* After Dubnyk made a pad save on Predators forward Mike Fisher in the second period to keep the game 1-1, Staal got to the puck to break up the play before Fisher was able to get another attempt on net.

* Spurgeon's goal came on a 2-on-1 rush that started in the defensive zone on a pass from forward Charlie Coyle. Schroeder drew the attention of two Predators on the rush, and that opened up a passing lane to get the puck to Spurgeon.
* Dubnyk has not lost a game in regulation since Nov. 19, when the Colorado Avalanche defeated the Wild 3-2. … Subban was scheduled to meet with doctors Tuesday, according to Predators general manager David Poile.

"I think in the first period we had some good legs, and then in the second we sort of prolonged some shifts, and that's where we got caught. In the third, we just started to get back to getting pucks behind their [defense] and playing simple hockey." Spurgeon said.
"It's a lot of fun. You can tell the excitement after we win in the locker room, the smiles and the way guys are just happy for each other. It's been a fun string of games, and we feel like we can win all the games. We're playing with a lot of confidence."
Parise returned to the lineup after missing two games with an illness.

"It's been an adventurous first half of the season, but it's nice to have a little bit of energy and feel a little bit rested. I felt good." Parise said.

"It's a good character response. I don't think we played that well in the first. Huge penalty kill at the end to get that point, and it's kind of disappointing that we didn't get that win." Boucher said.
"First of all, I thought he was playing well. With his speed, I thought in the overtime if you give him a chance, he might get a breakaway. As long as he plays within the confines of what we want to do, he's still going to get opportunities to score. I thought there were a couple guys that from the three-day break and no practice looked like they were struggling with their legs, and that's one of the reasons I moved him." -- Wild coach Bruce Boudreau on playing forward Jordan Schroeder in overtime and moving him to the first line.

NY Islanders @ Wild 4-6 - Thursday, December 29, 2016



Erik Haula scored with 10:30 remaining and the Minnesota Wild extended their winning streak to 12 games with a 6-4 victory against the New York Islanders at Xcel Energy Center. Haula deflected a shot by Nino Niederreiter to break a tie after Brock Nelson scored twice for the Islanders earlier in the third to tie the game 4-4. Mikael Granlund scored an empty-net goal at 18:19. Devan Dubnyk made 23 saves for Minnesota (23-8-4). He is 10-0-0 with 17 goals allowed in the past 10 games. It was the first time Dubnyk allowed more than three goals in 28 games. The Wild scored three goals in 1:20 of the second period, a franchise record for fastest three goals. Chris Stewart made it 2-2 at 14:20, Jared Spurgeon gave Minnesota the lead 35 seconds later and Jordan Schroeder made it 4-2 at 15:40. Marco Scandella gave Minnesota a 1-0 lead at 12:34 of the first period. The Islanders (14-15-6) responded 1:31 later when Jason Chimera scored on a one-timer. Nick Leddy gave the Islanders a 2-1 lead with a slap shot from the point that slipped between Dubnyk's pads 6:15 into the second period. Islanders goaltender Jaroslav Halak made 20 saves and was pulled after Schroeder's goal. Jean-Francois Berube made 10 saves in relief. Minnesota hosts the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday. The Blue Jackets are on a 14-game winning streak (tied for the third-longest in NHL history). No teams have ever played against each other while each holding win streaks of more than 11 games.

* Stewart took a shot while nearly parallel with the net that went off Halak's arm and in. The goal was Stewart's seventh of the season and started the Wild's surge in the second period.

* Dubnyk stopped Chimera on a breakaway at 4:34 of the second.

* Wild defenseman Ryan Suter assisted on Stewart's and Spurgeon's goals. He has 21 points and leads the NHL with a plus-24 rating this season.

* Niederrieter's shot bounced between Haula's legs and deflected into the net.
* Islanders forward Andrew Ladd had an assist to extend his point streak to three games. … Staal is on a nine-game point streak (five goals, seven assists) and Granlund has four goals and 12 points in the past 11 games.

"They have a will to win. I mean, they like this. I'm sure Columbus is the same way. They like winning." Bruce Boudreau 

"We broke the puck out nice and [I was] just trying to create some room for Nino, and I just felt it hit my feet. I just saw it go in. I guess when you're playing well, you get bounces like that sometimes." Haula said.
"That's nuts. I guess they're going to play it up like we're big rivals. But at the end of the day, they're Eastern Conference and we're Western Conference. Someone's got to win and we'll see what happens then." Stewart said.

Columbus Blue Jackets @ Wild 4-2 - Saturday, December 31, 2016


The Columbus Blue Jackets extended their winning streak to 15 games with a 4-2 win against the Minnesota Wild at Xcel Energy Center. Minnesota had won 12 games in a row. The game was the first in any of the four major North American professional sports leagues with each team on a winning streak of at least 12 games, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. The Blue Jackets tied the second-longest winning streak in NHL history (New York Islanders, 1981-82; Pittsburgh Penguins, 2012-13). The 1992-93 Penguins hold the record with 17 straight victories. Columbus (26-5-4) hasn't lost since Nov. 26, 2-1 in a shootout to the Florida Panthers. The Blue Jackets have outscored opponents 62-26 during the streak. Columbus next plays Tuesday against the Edmonton Oilers. The Wild (23-9-4) hadn't lost since Dec. 2, 3-2 in a shootout to the Calgary Flames. Minnesota hadn't lost at home since Nov. 19, 3-2 to the Colorado Avalanche. Cam Atkinson gave the Blue Jackets a 1-0 lead at 10:05 of the first period, and he made it 3-0 at 3:44 of the second. Atkinson has 16 points (nine goals, seven assists) in his past 12 games. Jack Johnson gave Columbus a 2-0 lead at 3:29 of the second period. Granlund scored a power-play goal for Minnesota at 5:58 of the second to make it 3-1. He has 15 points (five goals, 10 assists) in his past 12 games. Columbus went ahead 4-1 on Seth Jones' one-timer at 17:35 of the second. Jason Zucker scored 24 seconds into the third period to pull the Wild within 4-2. It was the third time in four games Minnesota allowed more than three goals. Devan Dubnyk made 21 saves.

* Atkinson beat the Minnesota defense on a breakaway and his wrist shot went five-hole on Dubnyk.

* At 2:09 of the second period, Wild forward Chris Stewart tried to backhand a shot past Sergei Bobrovsky, who lost sight of the puck before sitting on it and making one of his 29 saves.

* Saad won the battle behind the Minnesota net and saucer-passed right to Jones' stick for Columbus' fourth goal. Saad, who had two assists and was plus-1, has seven points (three goals, four assists) in a five-game point streak.

* Atkinson scored 15 seconds after Johnson when he tipped in a pass from Ryan Murray.

* Foligno has nine points (two goals, seven assists) during a five-game point streak. … Wennberg has seven points (two goals, five assists) during a five-game point streak. … Koivu has 10 points (three goals, seven assists) in his past nine games.

"We played a real good team, and they're playing good hockey, and maybe we weren't at our best tonight. But we can't win them all. Let's just get ready for the next one." Mikael Granlund said.
"Well, Christmas was really good. New Year's (Eve) ain't that good. We are all ticked off in there and everything. But if we sit back and look at the whole picture, what Columbus is doing is really amazing. But what we did was pretty good too. As long as we can get back to the way we were playing, then we'll continue to be successful." Bruce Boudreau said.