A two-game skid by the Minnesota Wild came to an end Friday night in south Florida with a 7-4 win over the Panthers.
Zach Parise scored the go-ahead goal with just over five minutes left in regulation to help the Wild end the skid.
“I thought we played well,” Parise said. “We didn’t play well the last two. But I think that means we’ve set the standard pretty high when it feels like panic sets in when we lose two games in a row. That means we’re doing some good things this year.”
The win came on the same night they got some help from the Chicago Blackhawks who lost Friday.
“I wanted to get this win as bad as any of them,” Wild head coach Bruce Boudreau said. “I thought it was important for our team to get this win because the next [four] games we’ve [got the] Chicago [Blackhawks], Washington [Capitals] and the [New York] Rangers. You didn’t want anything to spill over, so my thought is if this was the World Series or something, you’ve got your best pitcher in the bullpen you’re going to use him.”
Eric Staal struck twice for the Wild and Jason Zucker and Jason Pominville also scored for Minnesota who improved to 43-17-6.
With the Panthers net empty both Mikael Granlund and Charlie Coyle scored to seal the win.
Home has not been kind to the Panthers who are on a skid of their own with a 1-6-1 in their last eight games.
Jonathan Marchessault, Mark Pysyk, Jaromir Jagr and Aleksander Barkov had strikes for the Panthers who dropped to 29-26-11.
“It’s frustrating,” Pysyk said. “It could have gone either way. It was close till near the end. These are the ones we need to win.”
WATCH: All Wild vs. Panthers highlights
James Reimer took the loss on 39 saves.
“Obviously it could have gone both ways, but we always manage to find a way to not win hockey games. Obviously there’s something we’re not doing right, especially me. It’s a bad game defensively. Everybody needs to help each other and try to pick each other up. We need to turn that boat around,” Marchessault said of the tough loss.
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