ST. PAUL, Minn. _ During a recent win over the Los Angeles Kings, Bruce Boudreau tossed out a, "Not every game can be a Picasso," quote afterward. The coach could have regurgitated the same uttering after the first two periods of Saturday's 4-0 over the Dallas Stars, only switching Picasso with van Gogh or, better yet, your kindergartners refrigerator drawing.
The Wild, for 40 minutes at least, was ugly, with a capital U.
The good news is Devan Dubnyk, for three periods, was beautiful with a capital B.
For the first time in Wild history, the sizzling-hot goalie backstopped the Wild to three consecutive shutouts.
Dubnyk's 180-minute shutout streak broke his personal shutout streak of 166 minutes, 49 seconds and Darcy Kuemper's team individual shutout streak record of 163:46. The Wild's team shutout streak is now 181:43, which breaks the old record of 178:52.
With the Wild looking road weary in the final contest of seven games (four on the road) in a span of 12 days with no days off, Dubnyk did not. He looked just like he did _ perfect _ in consecutive blankings in Boston and Buffalo. Dubnyk now has 22 career shutouts, 13 with the Wild and is a perfect 94-for-94 in the past three games after Saturday's 29-save performance.
"Doooooo's" rained from the seats in the final minute.
It's hard to envision how he won't be named the NHL's First Star of the Week on Monday.
Through two periods to start a brief two-game homestand before hitting the road again for four, the Wild was held to a grand total of seven shots, only one in the middle 20 minutes.
Luckily for Minnesota, one of those shots by Mikael Granlund entered the Stars' net early in the first period, so Dubnyk had a cushion to rely upon as he turned away shot after shot.
In the third, Nino Niederreiter, Eric Staal, who turned 32 Saturday, and Tyler Graovac scored to lift the Central-Division leaders to a third straight win and 4-0 home record. For Graovac, it was his first NHL goal in his sixth game, and along with Granlund, they became the 17th and 18th goal scorers for the Wild amazingly before Nov. 1. That's a league-high.
Playing without injured Zach Parise, Marco Scandella and Erik Haula and losing Zac Dalpe in the second period, the Wild looked confused and sloppy early and a step or two slow in much of the long-change middle frame.
Boudreau's four new lines didn't seem to mesh. It led to lots of one-and-done's and looking on its heels. The Wild also fired wide or over the cage six times in the period.
Finally, late in the second, Boudreau began juggling. One of the lines he reunited was Niederreiter-Staal-Charlie Coyle.
It worked early in the third period. After a fabulous shift by Coyle, Niederreiter surprised goalie Kari Lehtonen with a snipe from the left faceoff circle over Lehtonen's left shoulder for a 2-0 lead.
Staal later added a power-play goal.
The Wild looked way out of sync on their first power play of the game just 13 seconds in, but that couldn't be said for their league-best penalty kill (24 for 25, 96 percent).
Not only did the Wild go 2-for-2 in the period, it scored short-handed 17 seconds into the Stars' first power play.
Defenseman Christian Folin, a team-best plus-9, forced a turnover by Jason Spezza from the corner to Granlund in the slot. Instead of clearing the zone, Granlund fed Mikko Koivu to his left and then hit the jets to turn a 2-on-2 into a 2-on-1.
After a beautiful toe drag in the Dallas end by Koivu, Granlund got ahead of Tyler Seguin, pulled Lehtonen out of his net and buried his first goal of the season and second career short-handed goal. It was the fifth game in a row the Wild struck first.
Dubnyk made nine saves in the first, then was outstanding in the second as the Wild was outshot 13-1. His best save came at the goalmouth to rob Patrick Eaves.
