In St Paul Saturday, the Minnesota Wild got two goals from both Nino Niederreiter and Mikko Koivu to defeat the Los Angeles Kings, 4-1.
The win set the stage for drama in the coming two weeks as the Wild now hold down the third position in the Central Division, one point ahead of the Chicago Blackhawks.
“We still have a long ways to go,” Wild coach Mike Yeo said. “But I’ll say, you look at what we’ve done lately and there’s no reason why our group should not feel good and be confident.
“We’ve put ourselves, mathematically, in a very good position to make sure we’re in the [Stanley Cup Playoffs], but let’s keep doing everything we can to give ourselves a chance to win games and see where we end up.”
This is a team was written off with thoughts of planning for the 2015-16 season.
“I feel like we’ve started trusting each other,” Niederreiter said. “I feel like we’ve gotten to know each other better on the ice and trusting our routes. Just a lot of talk off the ice and on the ice.”
Devan Dubnyk improved to 26-6-1 since joining the Wild.
“Back-to-backs are tough, they’re hard on everybody,” Dubnyk said. “I’ve got into a good rhythm. We’ve had a lot of [back-to-backs] this month. Sometimes you’re tired, but you can kind of just build off the game the night before.”
It was a slow start for the Kings who fell behind 2-0 before getting any offense going off a goal from Dwight King, his 11th.
“They beat us on special teams, and that’s what it came down to,” King said. “They capitalized on their chances. It took us awhile to get going.”
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