In St Paul, Frederick Gaudreau and Mats Zuccarello scored in the second period for the Wild, and Minnesota held off the Arizona Coyotes for a 2-1 win on Saturday night.
Marc-Andre Fleury made 27 saves in the win.
“We were happy with our patience in the hockey game,” Wild coach Dean Evason said. “They played hard. They kept coming. It’s almost like they play pretty freely and offensively their [defensemen] jump into the play.
“But we were happy that we didn’t deviate. We stayed with what we thought was going to give us a chance to have success tonight and ultimately it did.”
The Wild improved to 24-14-4.
Lawson Crouse was the lone striker for the Coyotes, his marker came in the third period.
“We played a really good game against a really good team,” Coyotes coach Andre Tourigny said. “They’re top-five in the League for shots against them in the slot and we had a lot tonight. We got rebounds, we got penetration, we defended well. … We defended with a lot of pride.”
The Coyotes have lost eight straight.
“It’s always nice to get some power-play goals,” Zuccarello said. “We try to score every time we’re out there. Sometimes it doesn’t work. Sometimes it works. It’s always nice to get a PP goal.”
Arizona dropped to 13-24-5.
Connor Ingram made 25 saves in the Arizona loss.
“At that point in time if that’s a goal that’s a killer,” Ingram said. “I think that’s the reason the rule is there, if it’s close you play it out, you go back and make sure you get it right. …. It was close and it kept us in it and gave us another chance.”
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