ST. PAUL, Minn. _ The Devils certainly resembled a team at the end of a longer road trip, seemingly not always looking to apply offensive pressure.
But with a strong performance from goalie Cory Schneider and a passionate, bounce-back outing from veteran forward Adam Henrique, the Devils did enough even though they couldn't hold a two-goal lead in the third period.
John Moore's goal, set up by Henrique, 52 seconds into overtime gave the Devils a 4-3 win over the Wild on Monday night at Xcel Energy Center to end their road trip with a 2-1-1 record.
Henrique, bumped down in the lineup before the game, had a goal and two assists and Schneider made 33 saves for the Devils (12-5-3).
There were new lines for the Devils, save for the top trio of No. 1 overall pick Nico Hischier in between Taylor Hall and Kyle Palmieri as coach John Hynes re-inserted Pavel Zacha, 20, a healthy scratch in four of the previous five games, and dropped Henrique, the former second-line center, to left wing on Blake Coleman's fourth line.
Hynes acknowledged on Sunday he was looking to send a "message" to some underperformers.
But Coleman's line, very much in part thanks to one of Henrique's better efforts of the season, was certainly not used like a fourth line, instead getting key minutes and chances to play in the offensive zone.
Henrique set up rookie defenseman Will Butcher's goal to put the Devils ahead, 3-1, at 7:21 of the third period. For Butcher, it was his second NHL goal and his second in two games after he pushed a rolling puck "three inches" over the goal line in Saturday's 5-2 loss at Winnipeg.
This time, Butcher sent a laser of the shot over the glove Devan Dubnyk (21 saves) from the left circle.
Henrique also was in the middle of two third-period scrums, taking on Jared Spurgeon and then drawing a retaliatory roughing penalty on Nino Niederreiter at 13:21.
But the Wild (9-8-3) cut the Devils' lead to 3-2 at 11:14 of the third period on Mikael Granlund's power-play wrist shot from the left. Then Granlund's one-timer from the right circle, with Dubnyk pulled for an extra skater, tied the game at 18:24.
The Devils were outshot 12-3 in the first period, the Wild took nine of the first 10 shots and the Devils' first shot was actually defenseman Ben Lovejoy's 151-foot penalty kill clear from his own faceoff circle.
Still, Henrique gave the Devils a 1-0 lead at 18:32 on their third shot on a bit of defensive indifference by the Wild after Brian Gibbons got the puck to the crease, Henrique banged away at it and it went in off defenseman Gustav Olofsson.
It marked Henrique's first goal in 11 games and snapped a four-game scoreless streak.
Zacha's return to the lineup did not go as well as Hynes already was shying away from using him in the first period, when he took just four shifts over 2:42 despite his center, Travis Zajac, getting eight shifts.
The Devils went up 2-1 on their sixth shot with the puck again deflecting in off Olofsson. Defenseman Steven Santini, with his first goal of the season, flung the puck at the crease from the right boards at 7:24 of the second period.
Santini was forced to hook Jason Zucker just 14 seconds into the second period to prevent a likely goal but Niederreiter, on a puck Schneider could not smother, tied the game at 1 on the power play at 1:32. Santini then was called for holding Marcus Foligno at 2:09, with Hynes switching his defense pairings so Santini played with John Moore and captain Andy Greene was paired with Damon Severson.
Zacha did perk up with two shots on a shift late in the second period.
