The Minnesota Wild may be the least likely team to be leading the Western Conference but give them credit as they keep winning.
Devan Dubnyk made 37 saves Saturday in St Paul to back stop the Wild to a 5-2 win
Devan Dubnyk made 37 saves in win over Nashville – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
over the Nashville Predators .
Jason Zucker scored two goals for Minnesota.
“We did a good job staying with it,” Dubnyk said. “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 gets much of the credit for the Wild’s success this season and a look at the numbers form the NHL stats page demonstrate it with the goalie leading the league in wins (32), save percentage (.934) and goals-against average (1.97).
“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,” Wild head coach Bruce Boudreau said after the win.
The Preds were coming off their five-day break and has been shown with this new wrinkle, teams do not come back well from the break.
The Predators dropped back to 27-22-8 with the loss.
“I don’t think the five-day break played into it,” Nashville coach Peter Laviolette said. “I mean, if we were flat or sluggish, that’s not how I saw the game. Everybody sees the game different. We were competitive, we got on the wrong side of the scoreboard early in the game, tough bounces, their goalie played well.”
That may be true but the NHL has seen a dismal record after the break with teams going 3-12-4.
Mikael Granlund, Zucker and Mikko Koivu helped the Wild build a 3-0 lead.
“Whenever you’re down a couple goals, you need guys to step up, and two big players for our hockey club made some plays,” Predators center Ryan Johansen said. “It was good to see. We felt like we had a chance there and they found a way to get a lucky break and put one in the net.”
Nashville tried to rally with two goals from Colin Wilson and P.K. Subban but Zucker replied for Minnesota with his two strikes.
“[We’re just] trying to keep building it, though, trying to make sure we keep getting better,” Zucker said. “This is a time we’ve got to keep building and keep getting better every game for [the Stanley Cup Playoffs].”
WATCH: All Predators vs. Wild highlights
Pekka Rinne made 28 saves in taking the loss.
Eric Staal added an empty net goal late to seal it.
You must be logged in to post a comment.