ST. PAUL, Minn. _ What should have been a Wild layup was way too close for comfort. But in the end, the Wild pulled out a 4-3 nail-biter of a victory over the Arizona Coyotes on Thursday night.
The Wild have almost double the amount of points than the Coyotes, were facing a backup goalie and what should have been a tired opponent playing for the fifth time in seven nights, the second time in 24 hours and reeling with 12 losses in their previous 14 games.
Even Vegas had the Wild as favorites; you would have had to lay $370 to win $100.
But for the second time in two home games, the Wild surrendered a two-goal lead and entered the third period with the score tied at 3.
But with 7:06 remaining, Nino Niederreiter, who has five goals in the past five games, scored his second power-play goal of the night when he was set up by Mikael Granlund for a slot redirection. The Wild, who got three assists from Jason Pominville, held on to improve to a league-best 18-2-1 since Dec. 4.
Eric Staal and Niederreiter helped give the Wild a 2-1 first-period lead, but just as it felt in the second period that the Wild were letting the Coyotes hang around, Chris Stewart buried a breakaway goal with 3:29 left in the period for that oh-so important two-goal lead.
But lately, the Wild have allowed their opponent to answer goals quickly and often, and this time it happened again in shocking fashion.
Just 23 seconds after Stewart's goal, defenseman Jakob Chychrun scored on a deflected shot that beat Devan Dubnyk through a Stewart screen where the puck also changed direction after hitting Stewart. The entire sequence against the fourth line started with a bad Matt Dumba pinch.
Then, just 30 seconds after that, Jamie McGinn beat Dubnyk to score and tie the game to end the second period.
So to recap, it took the Wild 36 { minutes to build a two-goal lead and 53 seconds to cough up not one, but two goals to enter the third period tied.
Dubnyk, who didn't give up more than three goals in his first 27 starts, has allowed three or more goals in five of eight starts since. After 27 starts, he had a 1.58 goals-against average and .947 save percentage. He has allowed 23 goals in the eight starts since.
The Wild have mostly won during this stretch, but after allowing 60 goals in the first 32 games (1.88 goals per game), the Wild have allowed 37 in the past 12 (3.08 goals per game).
Thursday's brief crumble came after Bruce Boudreau reacted to Tuesday's loss to New Jersey by tinkering with three of his lines. Staal was minus-3 in the third period Tuesday with Zach Parise and Pominville, so Parise skated against the Coyotes with Erik Haula and Jordan Schroeder and Pominville played on the fourth line with Stewart and Tyler Graovac.
Staal took advantage of Boudreau's shuffling of the desk instantly.
Staal's first shift with his reunited line of Nino Niederreiter and Charlie Coyle resulted in a suffocating forecheck and some near chances, Staal's second shift resulted in a goal.
Niederreiter fed Staal at center ice for a Staal-led 2-on-1. Staal opted shot, and lasered his 16th goal blocker-side on Louis Domingue. It was also Staal's 40th point in 44 games, eclipsing his total points of last season achieved in 83 games.
Shane Doan sprung Brendan Perlini at the blue line for a quick-strike tying goal, but the Wild's power play, which has scored in 13 of the past 16 games, came through on its first attempt.
Boudreau started with the second unit, and the group spent 79 seconds in the offensive zone and capitalized by Niederreiter scoring the first of his two power-play goals. Pominville skated the puck down low and fed captain Mikko Koivu, who placed the puck on a tee for a Niederreiter-one-timer. Koivu has 27 points in his past 27 games.
