In St Paul Friday, Devan Dubnyk made 25 saves through overtime and then stopped four Edmonton Oilers shooters in the skills competition to help the Minnesota Wild to a 3-2 win.
“I thought today we played above them most of the night,” Wild coach Bruce Boudreau said. “When you’re starting to chase [Connor] McDavid and Draisaitl and Nugent-Hopkins, they’re faster guys, then you get in trouble. If you can play above them, you’re able to contain them a little bit.”
The Oilers were coming off a heartbreaking loss to the Philadelphia Flyers where they collapsed in the third period.
“I’m proud of our group tonight. It’s been tough on us lately, the schedule, the way we’ve lost some games, and the frustration level goes up,” Oilers head coach Todd McLellan said. “Often when that happens it sucks a lot of energy out of you, but I thought our guys played a real strong game tonight.”
Matt Dumba and Jason Zucker potted goals in regulation for the Wild who improved to 14-8-4 on the season.
WATCH: All Oilers vs. Wild highlights
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Leon Draisaitl scored for the Oilers.
“That’s a tough team to play against, obviously, we’ll take the point, but we want to get the second point as well,” Draisaitl said. “It was unfortunate we couldn’t.”
Eric Staal was one of three Wild shooters to score in the shootout and was credited with the game-winner.
“Wins are wins in this league, every game is close, it’s tight and it seems it’s 2-1, 3-2 [all the time]. If we can feel comfortable in those matches it’s only going to help us more moving forward throughout the season,” Staal said.
Cam Talbot made 34 saves for the Oilers who fell to 14-11-5 on the season.
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