MINNEAPOLIS — The Wild held off on the last-minute dramatics, but the strategy was the same.
So was the outcome.
After falling behind twice to the Islanders, the Wild rallied both times before moving ahead and cruising to a 5-2 win on Sunday in front of 15,547 that counted as one of the more efficient of the team's seven comeback victories this season.
Rookie Brandon Duhaime scored the decisive goal in the third period, which was set up by Ryan Hartman, who tied the game barely a minute earlier.
Hartman also had the equalizer with 3 seconds left in the third period the previous night to set up an epic 5-4 shootout victory at Pittsburgh. The stage was set for an encore, and the Wild delivered what's becoming its signature move.
Edina's Anders Lee opened the scoring with 19 seconds left in the first, an unfortunate ending for the Wild considering the team had a strong start.
Not only did the Wild have speed, but players were crowding goaltender Semyon Varlamov's crease with pucks and pressure. To put it simply, the Wild didn't look like a team that gutted out an emotional shootout win a night earlier.
But not capitalizing on that edge proved to be costly.
In the last minute of the period and during a delayed penalty to the Wild, Zdeno Chara's shot hit captain Jared Spurgeon's skate in the slot and Lee, who was right in front of Spurgeon, smacked in the loose puck.
The Wild eventually regrouped near the midway point of the second.
After Varlamov made a save on Nick Bjugstad, Duhaime gobbled up the rebound and hurled it toward the net where Bjugstad deflected the shot behind Varlamov at 9:59.
But the Islanders responded quickly to Bjugstad's equalizer.
Mathew Barzal passed off to Lee on a 2-on-1 rush, and Lee capitalized at 12:04.
Soon after, New York had a chance to widen its lead on a power play. Instead, it was the Wild that almost scored.
Nick Sturm had an attempt hit Varlamov's pad and when Sturm scooped up the rebound, his wrap-around skirted through the crease.
Overall, the Islanders went 0-for-1 and the Wild was 0-for-2.
The third has been the Wild's most memorable period this season, and this wasn't an exception.
At 7:17, Hartman picked up his own rebound and wired it by Varlamov for his team-leading sixth goal and fourth in the last five games. Last season, Hartman had seven goals in 51 games.
Then, two shifts later, Duhaime skated into the Islanders zone and wired the puck over Varlamov at 9:18.
With an assist on the goal, Hartman registered his first multi-point game of the season. Duhaime, who was actually initially credited with the Wild's first goal before it was switched to Bjugstad, earned his first career multi-point game.
Matt Dumba, who also played a role in that late game-tying goal Saturday night in Pittsburgh, also netted an assist on Duhaime's goal – to extend his assist streak to a career-high four games.
The Wild capped off the scoring with two empty-net goals: Jonas Brodin at 18:13 and Dumba at 9:11. Varlamov totaled 34 saves.
This was goalie Kaapo Kahkonen's first win in two starts this season. He finished with 19 saves, rebounding from the 5-2 letdown to Nashville on Oct.24.
Next up for the Wild is a three-game road trip that begins Wednesday at Arizona.
