Wild rally from early deficit, defeat Leafs, 4-3

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In Toronto, the visiting Minnesota Wild got past their host Maple Leafs, 4-3, after being down 2-0 early in the afternoon contest.

Zach Parise scored the game0winner in the third period.

“It is encouraging; being down 2-0, if you give up that next one it can get out of hand in a hurry, but I just think the message for us was to not give up another one and we were going to get our looks and we just have to score on them,” Parise said. “Today we were able to get four and [Devan] Dubnyk played well. When we needed to get some big saves, he made them.”

The Wild needed the win and improved to 19-17-3.

“We weren’t putting the puck in the net,” Mikko Koivu said. “I think we were still creating, so in some ways for sure it looks like you’re struggling, but if you’re doing the right things and creating and getting chances, sometimes you just have to stay with it.”

Devan Dubnyk made 38 saves to get the win.

“That’s what we’re used to with this team,” Dubnyk said. “There was no [panic], we stuck to what we were doing, we kept pushing. Even when they got to 3-2, we didn’t start thinking, ‘Here we go again.’ We just stuck with it and came back and won a game. That’s what this group can do.”

William Nylander scored his first of the and Mitchell Marner struck twice in the first period for Toronto. Mariner scored just seven seconds into the game for the early 1-0 lead.

The Leafs dropped to 26-12-2.

Charlie Coyle, Koivu and Jared Spurgeon scored for the Wild in the rally.

[WATCH: All Wild vs. Maple Leafs highlights]

Michael Hutchinson was in the Leafs’ net with injuries crippling the Toronto netminder corp; he made 30 saves in the loss.

“I didn’t like our first period. I thought they were better than us,” Toronto coach Mike Babcock said. “I thought after that I liked our game a lot. It was a great game for our team; it’s the kind of game, you’ve got to learn how to win all kinds of games, and they’ve got good face-off guys, they’re a veteran team, they make it hard on you physically because they’re physical on offense, they’re near your net, they’re making it hard for you to handle them.”