The three-game sweep of the NHL starts in St Paul, where the Wild kept the pressure on the Columbus Blue Jackets and handed them their eight loss to start the season.
That loss for Columbus came despite the firing of Todd Richards this week and the surprise hiring of John Tortorella to coach the club.
The Jackets led the game 2-1 in the second period before the Wild took control of the game.
“There was 11 or 12 minutes in the second period where I thought we lost momentum, but I thought we played hard,” said Tortorella.
“That’s a team that defends well. You have to get through a number of layers just to try to get pucks to the net. But there was a lot of good things that went on with our club here.
“But we’re 0-8. Moral victories are not going to help us right now.”
Zach Parise opened the scoring for the Wild and Thomas Vanek and Nino Niederreiter added goals for the Wild.
Alexander Wennberg and Brandon Dubinsky scored for the Jackets.
In Pittsburgh, Antti Niemi continued his great start for the Dallas Stars and made 28 saves to defeat the Penguins, 4-1.
“It felt good today, like last game,” Niemi said. “I felt good overall and it’s easier to get to the game when I get shots early. It was quick … then they quieted down a little bit and we got our own game back.”
The Pens fell to 3-4-0 on the season and went flat after an early show of energy and enthusiasm.
“I thought we came out with a lot of intensity,” Penguins coach Mike Johnston said. “When something goes wrong or something happens, I think we let our guard down for a portion of time. It doesn’t matter what happens in the game, you can’t let the emotion sag. As you saw in tonight’s game, there was great emotion and great intensity at parts, but then it sagged at other parts.
“That’s the thing. You have to have better resolve in those moments.”
Lindy Ruff was not pleased with his club’s effort in the first period.
“I told the team after the first period, I didn’t like the first period at all,” Ruff said. “I said, ‘We were lucky.’ We didn’t compete in some small areas. I thought we came out in the second period, and until we made the mistake, we hadn’t given up a shot and were really playing good hockey.
“I thought we were a bit fortunate in the first to get those two, but at the same time, after that, I thought we played well.”
In another 4-1 decision, the New York Rangers downed the Arizona Coyotes by that scored and Keith Yandle scored his first of the season against his former team.
“I wanted to make an impact in tonight’s game and help our team win,” Yandle said. “We had a lot of guys who played well, and I was lucky enough to score.”
It was enough of an impact to keep the Rangers’ boo birds off his back for another night and enough of an impact to keep the Rangers on the winning side.
“I was just trying to get anything at the net,” Yandle said. “[Rangers coach Alain Vigneault] talked about it between periods, just getting pucks to the net, causing traffic and rebounds. I was just trying to get it there. Got lucky. It hit a few guys and went in.”
Henrik Lundqvist made 34 saves in the win.
The Rangers finally got goals from Chris Kreider and Rick Nash who each scored their first of the season; Nash’s was into an empty net but a goal nonetheless.
The Nash goal was credited to him because he was hooked on a breakaway with the net empty.
“The way things were going, yeah, it felt pretty standard,” he said.
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