In St Paul, the Minnesota Wild had a little harder time than most games but Erik Haula scored midway through the third period to break a 4-4 tie and send the Wild to their 12th straight win, 6-4 over the New York Islanders.
“We broke the puck out nice and [I was] just trying to create some room for Nino, and I just felt it hit my feet,” Haula said. “I just saw it go in. I guess when you’re playing well, 
you get bounces like that sometimes.”
Haula deflected a shot from Nino Niederreiter for the winner.
The Wild held a 4-2 lead early in the third period but the Isles got two goals from Brock Nelson to knot it at 4 all.
In the second period, Minnesota set a franchise record for the fastest three goals when Chris Stewart, Jared Spurgeon and Jordan Schroeder scored to give the Wild a 4-2 lead.
“Obviously down two goals to a team that’s very good at protecting a lead and on a pretty good run isn’t good,” Islanders’ John Tavares said. “Big two goals by [Nelson]. We responded well. I thought we played a pretty decent second period other than that three- or four-minute stretch where we gave up those three goals. Pretty frustrating we gave up six. Not gonna win many games doing that.”
Marco Scandella opened the scoring for Minnesota in the first period and Mikael Granlund added an empty-netter late.
WATCH: All Islanders vs. Wild highlights
Devan Dubnyk made 23 saves for Minnesota who improved to 23-8-4.
Jason Chimera and Nick Leddy also scored for the Islanders.
“It’s a tough loss. It’s too bad. Jaro wasn’t sharp at all,” Islanders coach Jack Capuano said. “Some soft goals to start, and then we had to battle our way back in. … I thought Berube went in there and gave us a chance. It’s just tough the way it is, 2-on-2 and off two pads and in the back of the net. Just unlucky a little bit.”
Jaroslav Halak got the start for the Isles in net and made 20 saves. He got the hook in favor of Jean-Francois Berube who stopped 10 shots in relief.
“I think that’s the frustrating part. If it didn’t happen as often as it has, maybe you don’t sulk as much but with where we’re at, we need all the bounces to turn and kind of go in our favor to get out of this, so I think that’s the hardest part,” Nelson said after the loss.
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