The three game sweep starts in Raleigh where the Minnesota Wild continued their seemingly inexorable climb up the table in the Western Conference. On Friday night, they hung a 3-1 loss on the Hurricanes.
Devan Dubnyk made 37 saves for the win.
“Approaching this season, I wanted to not take for granted any day,” said Dubnyk, who 
made 37 saves. “I wasn’t sure how many games I was going to get in for Arizona, whether it was 10 or 15. I wanted to enjoy the 60 minutes I got, whenever that happened. Coming to Minnesota, I just wanted to keep that same attitude, just be happy for the opportunity to start another hockey game. That allows me to have fun on the ice and be relaxed and play well.”
Charlie Coyle, Mikael Granlund and Zach Parise scored for Minnesota who are 36-22-7.
“I don’t think we were tired but we didn’t have a good first two periods at all,” Parise said. “They pressured us all over the ice. I felt like we never had the puck. We were chasing it the whole night. It was pretty frustrating first two periods.”
For the Wild head coach Mike Yeo it was more an issue of playing in a hostile building than being tired or unprepared.
“You’re not going to go into another team’s building and play a perfect game,” Yeo said. “We knew there were going to be less-than-perfect moments in the game. You have to be able to weather those storms. The way we came out in the third and how we really went after it was a real good sign.”
The Canes have now lost two straight.
“We didn’t look sharp,” Carolina coach Bill Peters said. “We didn’t look like we wanted to put the work in to be successful. We used to be a hard-working, honest group. We haven’t been the last two times out.”
In Detroit, the Red Wings failed to capitalize on their strong win over the New York Rangers Wednesday and lost to the Calgary Flames, 5-2.
Jiri Hudler scored twice for the Flames.
“It didn’t feel like a special game,” said Hudler, who played parts of seven seasons with the Red Wings before signing with the Flames as a free agent in 2012. “There’s no hard feelings; I have a lot of friends here. We’re playing for our lives, trying to get to the [Stanley Cup Playoffs].”
Jonas Hiller made 33 saves for Calgary in the win.
“We had good chances tonight. Could we have been better? Absolutely we could have been better,” Detroit coach Mike Babcock said. “We had lots of play, but in the end we didn’t do it good enough, long enough, and you’ve got to give them credit. They found a way to win on back-to-back nights (Calgary defeated the Boston Bruins 4-3 in a shootout on Thursday). They were better in the second half of the game than we were.”
Jimmy Howard took the loss on 19 saves.
In our book, we gave up one chance in the third period. To do that against a team that good really says something,” Calgary coach Bob Hartley said. “Our [defense] blocked a lot of shots (21) and we managed to control their pressure.”
In Newark, the Columbus Blue Jackets managed a solid 3-2 win over the New Jersey Devils to blunt the Devils efforts at climbing the Metropolitan Division ladder.
Brandon Dubinsky had a goal and an assist for Columbus and Justin Falk added a marker.
“Until you guys told me the goal was mine, I thought I didn’t have it,” Falk said. “[My first career goal] was on the power play too, in my first year, I think (actually third season).”
The game marked Dubinsky’s return to the lineup after an injury.
“I felt good,” Dubinsky said. “It was nice to get back in the lineup with these guys and obviously to get a big win here in a tough building.
“We needed to find a win. There are some [times] in the [losing] streak that we felt we deserved a little better than we got. New Jersey turned up the pressure on us in the second half of the game, which made it tough on us.”
Marko Dano got the game-winner in the second period.
Cory Schneider took the loss on 21 saves and seemed unprepared for the first two goals from the Jackets.
“Time is not on our side,” Schneider said. “We are running out of games. Every game is critical. It’s tough to lose in regulation at home to a team we beat a week ago (2-0 on Feb. 28).”
The Devils trail Boston by eight points but have played two more games than the B’s.
“We have to be at the top of our game,” Devils co-coach Lou Lamoriello said. “It wasn’t because of a lack of effort, it’s just we weren’t winning the battles earlier in the game that we were winning in the third period. … They forced some turnovers that were costly.”
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