In St Paul Thursday, Devan Dubnyk yielded a goal. After three straight shutouts, the string was broken.
But the true highlight of the Minnesota Wild’s game with the Nashville Predators was the four-goal outburst with less than seven minutes remaining in regulation.
The offensive eruption resulted in a 6-4 Wild win.
For a team needing wins, the effort was less than stellar but they still picked up the two points.
“You can’t be satisfied with playing 30 minutes a game because it’s going to come up and bite you as the season goes along,” Wild head coach Bruce Boudreau said. “But … they can’t all be Picasso’s either. It shows great character to be able to come back and all of a sudden do that. It makes people believe, or the team, I think, believe that they’re capable of doing it.”
The four goals in the third period came as the Wild trailed 4-2.
Ryan Suter started the rally followed by Eric Staal and Jason Zucker who picked up the game-winner.
Jared Spurgeonsealed it with an empty-netter.
“We stopped playing after 20 minutes,” Nashville coach Peter Laviolette said. “We took penalties. We stopped skating. You stop skating, you start hooking, you go to the box. Again, 20 minutes of hockey. We left 40 somewhere else.”
Ryan Johansenended the Dubnyk streak early when he put the Preds on the board with only 49 seconds gone in the game.
“Obviously it was a point of emphasis to get to [Dubnyk] and get as many shots as we could,” Johansen said. “We set the tone really well tonight, had a great start. We just need to stick to our game plan like we did in the first, and the third [we] got away from it.”
The other Wild goals were scored by Nino Niederreiter and Matt Dumba.
“I think it proves in sports you have to play with emotion,” Boudreau said. “I mean, the last 25 minutes, we were emotionally into it and it’s amazing what emotion does. The first 35 minutes we weren’t and it showed.”
Roman Josi, Mattias Ekholm and Viktor Arvidsson also scored for the Preds.
[WATCH: All Predators vs. Wild highlights]
Pekka Rinne, made 30 saves in the loss.
“I think our mindset’s got to be to get the next goal. You can’t sit back. Teams are too good. If you sit back, they’re going to make you pay. We [have] to make sure we play with the same intensity and try to get that next goal” Nashville’s Roman Josi said after the third period collapse.
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