Wild win fifth straight

In St Paul Saturday, the Minnesota Wild won their fifth straight game, 3-2, over the Colorado Avalanche.

Devan Dubnyk made 30 saves to pick up the win.

The Wild improved to 6-2-2.

“This was a big one for us,” Dubnyk said. “They’ve taken it to us over the last year and a half and the first game of the season [4-1 loss]. Being a [Central] division team, we needed this one. To get it in regulation was big.

“I said this morning and continued tonight, I feel like our game’s gotten better each game. We’ve put together more and more good minutes of hockey each night. That was the same tonight. We’ve just got to continue to do that on the road.”

Mikael Granlund and Eric Staal scored for Minnesota.

“I think [this win] is critical,” Wild head coach Bruce Boudreau said. “It’s one of those rare nights where we actually pick up ground on teams.”

The loss dropped the Avs to 7-3-2.

Jonas Brodin scored a shorthanded goal into an empty net with just under three minutes left to give the Wild a 3-1 lead.

“Honestly, we only care about the two points,” Barberio said. “I’m not a goal scorer so if they come, great, but at the end of the day this is a rival team in the same division. We had a chance to separate ourselves from them and now they’re closer to us in the standings, so that’s all that matters.”

Mark Barberio and Gabriel Landeskog scored for Colorado.

“That’s probably the best line in the world right now,” Granlund said of Landeskog, MacKinnon and Rantanen. “They played really good. They were having a couple chances but just tried to play hard and it was a tough challenge. But those were a huge two points for us.”

[WATCH: All Avalanche vs. Wild highlights]

Semyon Varlamov made 25 saves in the loss.

“It’s a close, hard-fought game but a tough loss for us because I felt like our guys deserved a little bit better. … Special teams ended up being the difference. … I’ve got to give our guys credit,” Colorado head coach Jared Bednar said. “Loved our effort, great first period. Five-on-five I thought we were really good. To me it’s tough scheduling for us coming in here. They’re rested, we’re coming in after a hard-fought emotional game last night [6-3 win against the Ottawa Senators] that we had to scratch and claw to get back on top and win. Our guys, I thought they came out with pretty good energy, pretty good detail to our game.”