The three-game sweep of the NHL from Monday starts in St Paul, where the Minnesota Wild got a strong performance from Devan Dubnyk who made 28 saves in a 3-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings.
“When you’ve played as many games as [Wild coach Mike Yeo] has allowed me to play over the last little while, it’s easy to just get into game-day routine,” Dubnyk said. “Nothing really changes. It’s not a big deal. [The wrist] didn’t feel real good this morning, but it felt a lot better tonight than I expected it to.”
Dubnyk referred to a hand injury in practice on Sunday.
Charlie Coyle scored and Mikko Koivu added two goals for the Wild who improved to 18-10-6.
“We knew this homestand was going to be a test,” Yeo said. “We can’t classify it as a good one, but certainly a win tonight doesn’t make it so bad.”
The Wild finished a four-game homestand at 2-2-0.
Pavel Datsyuk scored the lone Wings goal and Petr Mrazek made 32 saves.
“I didn’t think we made it very tough. I would have liked to have been [their] goalie,” Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. “Not to take anything away from [Dubnyk], I thought he played good, but we didn’t make it hard on him at all.”
In San Jose, the Sharks were swamped by the Colorado Avalanche in a 6-3 loss.
Nathan MacKinnon ended a long goal drought with a hat trick in the win; two of the goals came off the power play. The Avs scored four power play goals on the night.
“I think we have so many different options,” MacKinnon said of the power play. “I think all of our goals were from a different variety. A tip, off the rush, back door. We’ve been struggling a little bit in that department. Hopefully it gives us some confidence.”
Carl Soderberg, Blake Comeau and Matt Duchene (even strength) also scored for the Avs.
“Tough slump obviously with 14 games,” MacKinnon said. “They come in bunches sometimes and obviously it’s nice to get on the board and get the win.”
The lack of a skilled penalty kill is troublesome for the Sharks.
“I don’t have a reason,” Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said. “Hooking, holding … we took six (penalties). You’re playing with fire any time you take that many penalties. They had four power-play goals. That was the difference in the game.
“Our penalty kill has been arguably the best in the League over the last two months. It wasn’t good tonight. They were making plays through us. Their goalie was better than ours too. That’s a bad formula.”
Calvin Pickard made 35 saves in the Avs net.
“It was nice,” Pickard said. “It wasn’t an easy task coming in here back-to-back, but it’s pretty nice when your team scores six goals for you. That gives you a lot of breathing room. I was able to get into it early with a few shots right off the bat. I felt pretty good all the way through, minus that third goal. It was a big game for us, a lot of great efforts. Power play was huge, penalty kill was huge. It was a big win.”
In Tampa, Dale Weise, Tomas Plekanec and Alex Galchenyuk scored the Montreal Canadiens in regulation and Max Pacioretty scored the clincher in the skills competition to help the Habs end a six-game losing streak, 4-3, over the Lightning.
“That felt really good, and it shows a lot about our team,” Pacioretty said. “You know you give up two goals quickly there and we’re on our heels, but to be able to come back and pull out a win, that’s how you get out of these slumps — a gutsy win like that.”
Montreal improved to 21-14-3 on the season.
“We got contributions from everybody,” Weise said. “All four lines were playing. I thought [Mark] Barberio stepped up and was unreal on the back end. Just good contributions from everybody.”
Mike Condon made 36 saves to get the win for the Canadiens.
“In my mind we gave away a couple points,” Lightning captain Steven Stamkos said. “Their goaltender made some big saves, Bishop made some big saves. We found a way to get the lead in the third, we’ve got to close it out.”
Ben Bishop had 31 saves in the loss.
“We’ve played a lot of good hockey and didn’t get the results,” Canadiens coach Michel Therrien said. “We were ready to play. It’s nice to see the big smile and hear the music after the game. It was well-deserved.”
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