The three-game sweep of the NHL from Saturday starts in St Paul where the Wild continued their streak with a 4-0 win over the visiting Nashville Predators.
“We hadn’t been playing well on the road. We knew we had to come home and get this thing turned around quick,” Wild defenseman Ryan Suter said. “I thought we did that and we finally played 60 minutes. Power play was good, penalty kill was good, goalie was good. Now we have to build on it.”
Devan Dubnyk picked up his third shutout with 23 saves.
For the Predators, it was their second straight shutout defeat (they lost to the Columbus Blue Jackets by the same score).
“Same score, but two different games. [Friday] night, we had an awful lot of quality scoring chances, we just didn’t score. Tonight was a different story,” Predators coach Peter Laviolette said. “They defended pretty good. We didn’t seem to be in synch and have our jump to us, certainly not like last night.”
Suter, Mikael Granlund, Jonas Brodin and Thomas Vanek all scored for the Wild.
“We just didn’t play good enough to win tonight,” said Predators defenseman Shea Weber. “We weren’t hungry enough, we’re not getting to the interior of the ice. It’s not easy against this team, but we just have to do a better job.”
In Pittsburgh, the San Jose Sharks hung a 3-1 loss on the Penguins Saturday.
Martin Jones made 38 saves in the win and the Sharks improved to 12-8-0.
“I think, just in general, just to come in here and get the win, two points, it was a good team road win for us tonight,” Martin said. “Anytime you get on the scoresheet, it always makes it a little more enjoyable. … I get [Fleury] to bank it off [Lovejoy] and I’ll take it. I guess I have to thank them for helping me out.”
Paul Martin and Brent Burns (two goals) scored for the Sharks.
Phil Kessel scored for the Penguins.
“If there’s one thing in the game for me, it’s our loose puck recovery around the net,” Penguins coach Mike Johnston said. “Some of those rebound chances … I thought we had to be hungrier.”
Marc-Andre Fleury had 26 saves in the loss.
“I think we haven’t been our best,” San Jose’s Patrick Marleau said. “There’s different guys stepping up and playing key roles and [Jones] has been playing great. But finding a way to get those points, those wins, is big. You’re not going to have it every night. I think the last game against [the Philadelphia Flyers (a 1-0 win)], we saw that and we still found a way to get it in overtime and tonight, we played a pretty strong 60 minutes against a very powerful offensive team with a lot of good players over there.”
In Vancouver, Daniel and Henrik Sedin kicked in four goals (Daniel Sedin with a hat trick) in the Canucks 6-3 win over the Chicago Blackhawks.
“That was an impressive performance,” coach Willie Desjardins said of the Sedins. “When you really need your leadership is when you are going through a tough time. We needed a win and they stepped up.”
Henrik Sedin had a goal and four assists and Daniel Sedin added an assist.
“That’s huge, especially how our third periods have been,” said Daniel, who reached the 900-point mark when he set up Henrik’s first-period goal. “It was big to get that lead again.”
Ryan Miller made 26 saves for the win.
“I wouldn’t say it’s surprising, but it’s fun to watch,” Miller said of the Sedins. “You almost kind of expect the plays to happen and sometimes you are amazed they can make a play but I don’t know if I’m surprised. I am just kind of waiting for it to pan out.”
Corey Crawford made 14 saves to take the loss.
“They had their way out there tonight,” Patrick Kane said. “We played pretty well and controlled most of the game. You get yourself back 3-3 and a couple of shift later you’re down 5-3. It’s frustrating but those guys made some good plays.”
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