NHL - Wild - Round Up - February 16-27, 2017

Stars @ Wild 1-3 - Thursday, February 16, 2016
Darcy Kuemper made 34 saves for the Minnesota Wild in 3-1 win against the Dallas Stars at Xcel Energy Center. The Stars (22-27-10) lost their third consecutive game and their seventh in eight. They have lost six straight on the road and are seven points behind the Calgary Flames for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference. Minnesota (38-13-6) played the fifth of an eight-game homestand, the longest in its history, and is 20-7-1 at home. The Wild are 8-2-1 in their past 11 games and 14-4-1 in their past 19. They are 14-3-2 following a loss this season and have lost consecutive games in regulation once (Nov. 1 and 5). Ryan Suter gave Minnesota 1-0 lead with a power-play goal with 0.8 seconds left in the first period, and Erik Haula scored at 4:51 of the second period to make it 2-0.

Cody Eakin denied Kuemper of the shutout at 5:19 of the third period after he picked up a loose puck and shot top shelf to make it 2-1. It was the first goal for Dallas here in two games this season. The Wild shut out the Stars 4-0 on Oct. 29. Playing 4-on-4, Jared Spurgeon increased the Wild lead to 3-1 at 13:04 of the third period with a backhand goal. Dallas goalie Kari Lehtonen made 23 saves.

* Suter scored from just inside the blue line. He leads Wild defensemen with 31 points (eight goals, 23 assists).

* Kuemper laid out to make a save on Stars defenseman Jordie Benn at 16:35 of the second period.

* Minnesota center Mikko Koivu left the penalty box and picked up the puck to start the play for the Wild's second goal. Koivu had two assists and has 598 NHL points, 42 this season (16 goals, 26 assists).

* Jordan Schroeder moved the puck down the right side before passing to Haula at the doorstep.
* Minnesota lost 1-0 to the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday. … Wild forward Jason Pominville had an assist and leads the NHL with 18 points and 14 assists since Jan. 19 and has a point in 12 of those 14 games. … Wild forward Mikael Granlund had an assist and has six goals and 14 assists in the past 18 games.

"It's nice when you get a few glove saves early, it gets you in a rhythm. I was fortunate that that happened. I felt pretty good." Kuemper said.
"Tonight it was goaltending. I think for the most part it's the desire to win. We put ourselves in a good position and we want to continue to stay in that position. There is a really good profound desire to succeed."
"I thought [Kuemper] was by far our best player tonight. He played really good. He finally got rewarded for the effort he's been putting in in practice. To be thrown into games, coming back off the road and having to play [the Chicago Blackhawks, a 4-3 overtime loss Feb. 8] and stuff, we have the faith in him. That's why we do those things." Bruce Boudreau said.

Nashville Predators @ Wild 2-5 - Saturday, February 18, 2016
Devan Dubnyk made 37 saves, and Jason Zucker scored twice for the Minnesota Wild in a 5-2 win against the Nashville Predators at Xcel Energy Center. Dubnyk leads the NHL in wins (32), save percentage (.934) and goals-against average (1.97). He is 5-1-0 with 12 goals allowed in his past six games. The Wild (39-13-6) are 15-4-1 in their past 20 games and 7-2-1 in their past 10 home games. They lead the Chicago Blackhawks by nine points for first place in the Central Division and the Western Conference and are 14-4-3 against Central opponents this season. The Predators (27-22-8), 10-6-1 in their past 17 games, returned from a five-day break. NHL teams are 3-12-4 in the first game back from their break and 0-8-3 in February. Mikael Granlund scored 22 seconds into the power play at 2:38 of the first period to give Minnesota a 1-0 lead.

The Wild have scored 13 power-play goals in their past 13 home games and lead the NHL with a .275 power-play percentage at home. Granlund dished to Jason Zucker down low for a 2-0 lead at 17:00 of the second period. It was Zucker's 100th NHL point (59 goals, 41 assists) in his 227th game. Wild center Mikko Koivu got his 600 NHL point, in his 820th game, 35 seconds into the third period when he scored for a 3-0 lead. Colin Wilson scored on a rebound to deny Dubnyk a shutout at 8:16; it was his third goal in his past 25 games. P.K. Subban made it 3-2 at 10:25 after a Nashville coach's challenge overturned the initial ruling of goaltender interference. Zucker scored on a breakaway at 16:41 of the third, and Eric Staal scored into an empty net at 18:05.

* Granlund and Zucker forced a 2-on-1, and Zucker scored off Granlund's pass to increase the Wild lead.
"I'll take those passes from Granny all day," Zucker said. "I think he slid it through [goalie Pekka] Rinne's stick, through the triangle of Rinne. So, I mean, that's a pretty ridiculous pass."

* Dubnyk stacked the pads against Nashville defenseman Ryan Ellis on a shorthanded breakaway at 6:25 of the first period.

* Ellis blocked an open shot by Koivu at 6:04 of the first period. Ellis led the Predators with four blocked shots and had one takeaway in a Nashville-high 24:53 of ice time. 

* Zucker skated in alone and backhanded a shot past Rinne for an insurance goal.
* Wild defenseman Jonas Brodin, who missed 14 games with a finger injury, was activated from injured reserve. He was plus-1 and blocked one shot in 14:55 of ice time.

"We did a good job staying with it. We probably want to be a little tighter when we've got a 3-0 lead, but end of the day, big goal from [Zucker] and we locked it down at the end." Dubnyk said.
"[We're just] trying to keep building it, though, trying to make sure we keep getting better. This is a time we've got to keep building and keep getting better every game for [the Stanley Cup Playoffs]." Zucker said.
"It's like anything else. You've got a 3-0 lead and you think you're in full control of the game. You give a team one goal and momentum swings so quickly and then all of a sudden they get the next one and it's like, 'Uh oh.' Game on. They were coming ... and I think [Zucker's] goal took the wind out of their sails."  Bruce Boudreau 

Los Angeles Kings @ Wild 4-5 OT - Monday, February 27, 2016
Mikael Granlund scored 12 seconds into overtime to give the Minnesota Wild a 5-4 win against the Los Angeles Kings at Xcel Energy Center on Monday. Ryan White had one goal and one assist in his Wild debut after being acquired from the Coyotes on Sunday, and Nino Niederreiter, Jordan Schroeder and Jason Zucker also scored for Minnesota (40-14-6). The Wild returned from the League's mandatory five-day break and moved two points ahead of the Chicago Blackhawks for first place in the Central Division and Western Conference with three games in hand. Devan Dubnyk made 26 saves. Minnesota was without forwards Zach Parise and Jason Pominville, who were diagnosed with the mumps prior to the game. Nick Shore, Tanner Pearson, Jake Muzzin and Marian Gaborik scored for Los Angeles (30-27-5). Jonathan Quick made 30 saves. Shore opened the scoring with his first goal in 21 games on a one-timer from the slot at 8:15 of the first period. Niederreiter tied the game with a wrist shot at 13:00. He has 10 points (five goals, five assists) in his past nine games. Pearson gave Los Angeles a 2-1 lead with a shot that deflected off Jonas Brodin's stick at 15:01 of the first period. Schroeder tied the game at 4:23 of the second period with a shot that deflected off Shore's stick. Muzzin restored the lead for Los Angeles at 11:30 of the second with a shot from the blue line that deflected over Dubnyk. White deflected Niederreiter's shot for his first goal with the Wild at 13:05 to make it 3-3, but Gaborik tied it 1:57 into the third. Gaborik had gone nine games without a point. Zucker tied it for Minnesota with 12:56 remaining in the third period.

* Granlund skated from his own blue line with puck, blew past Kings forwards Jeff Carter and Anze Kopitar, eluded defenseman Drew Doughty and beat Quick on a forehand shot for the winning goal.

* Quick slid across his crease to make a pad save on Chris Stewart's backhand shot at 2:20 of the first period.

* Kings defenseman Braydon McNabb got his stick made a nice play against Wild center Eric Staal to prevent a shot while Quick was out of position.

* Niederreiter deked and beat Quick stick-side for his team-leading 20^th goal of the season.
* Pearson has 12 points (five goals, seven assists) in his past eight games. … Granlund has six points (four goals, two assists) during a four-game point streak and has 25 points (10 goals, 15 assists) in his past 21 games.

"Hopefully we get through these next couple of days and no one else comes down with any symptoms. But if you're going to be passing [it] around, the celebration after [Granlund's] goal is definitely a lot of gloves in face and excitement, so if someone had it in that pile then we all got it, so we'll see it what happens." Eric Staal
"I did it completely three different times, and then the fourth I just scratched out and put names in because it was getting too late. I usually get here really early, and then it still didn't seem like I had enough time to get it all done because it seemed like every 15 minutes something new was happening." Bruce Boudreau
"They just kind of gave us the base of what was going to happen out there and just told us to go out there and play hockey. I think that's the way to go about it on the day like this. That's what I was telling myself all day, that it's just hockey, so just go out there and play. I got lucky. I had a couple good linemates out there tonight that made things easy on me. I was just trying to do the right things and got rewarded." said White.
"I think a lot of times we've seen that [we've come back like] that before, so everybody knows we can do it and it's not a big deal if we go down. Obviously we'd like to lead the game, but sometimes it's like that." Granlund said.