ST. PAUL, Minn. _ Three years ago, Darcy Kuemper and Ilya Bryzgalov saved the day. Two years ago, it was Devan Dubnyk.
Last season, it took John Torchetti's entrance and Mike Yeo's exit.
It seems like anytime the Wild falls into an abyss, some sort of external move is needed for this team to climb its way out.
Thursday night, enter Alex Stalock and Joel Eriksson Ek. With a new goalie and center in the fray, the Wild brass was hoping for a flicker of life from their fading team. For at least one night, players responded with a precision-like 5-1 win over the Ottawa Senators.
Stalock, the hometown kid recalled from Des Moines to make his Wild debut, made 18 saves for his first NHL win since Jan. 12, 2016. Eriksson Ek, brought back to the NHL from his pro club in Karlstad, Sweden, scored his first NHL goal since Oct. 27 and third of his career as the Wild won for only the fourth time in 16 games this month (4-10-2).
The Wild is 1-0-2 in their past three games and held their opponents to a combined 58 shots (19.3 a game).
Nino Niederreiter, one of the most snakebit of the Wild's long list of anemic forwards, scored two goals and Matt Dumba and Jason Pominville one each. Charlie Coyle had two assists, as did Chris Stewart after not having a single one in the previous 14 games.
The Wild got contributions up and down its lineup, including from a newly-constructed fast, physical fourth line. Eriksson Ek centered the line with Erik Haula moving from pivot to left wing and Ryan White playing right. White played one of his strongest games with the Wild, forcing turnovers and pounding Senators bodies, especially Jyrki Jokipakka twice in the first period.
The Wild did a solid job protecting Stalock, the athletic, agile, puck-moving goalie that is quite the contrast to the larger Dubnyk and Kuemper. At 5-foot-10, the 29-year-old's about the size of John Vanbiesbrouck and Mike Vernon, a rarity in today's NHL.
Stalock battled to find the puck, let pucks hit him, covered up for the rare mistake and had rebounds cleared out by his collapsing teammates.
The South St. Paul, Minn., native had several family members and friends in the crowd and even got the solo lap treatment in warmups when captain Mikko Koivu sneakily held the rest of the team from taking the ice, a custom typically bequeathed to rookies making their NHL debuts.
Stalock was playing his 63rd NHL game.
In a game that the Senators were missing captain Erik Karlsson and the Wild were without Zach Parise, the Wild gained an eight-point edge on St. Louis for home-ice advantage in the first round and nine points on Nashville. The Wild visit the Predators on Saturday.
Two seconds after a Niederreiter penalty expired in the first period, Mike Hoffman scorched a one-timer from inside the right circle that Stalock had no prayer of stopping.
But just 47 seconds later, Niederreiter, in urgent need of a goal, tied the score diving for a rebound in the crease. Niederreiter, who hit the 20-goal mark for a third straight year Feb. 27, hadn't scored since. But the goal snapped a 16-game drought. He had one goal in the previous 21 games.
Bruce Boudreau had been all but begging lately for Niederreiter to bust out of his slump because as the coach said, one goal usually turns into two, three and four with the streaky power winger.
He was right.
In the second period, Niederreiter scored his 22nd goal with his fifth multi-goal game of the season after a terrific forecheck by Stewart and Eric Staal forced a turnover. Staal stretched his point streak to six games by sending a nifty pass in front for Niederreiter, who buried the marker past Craig Anderson.
Later in the period and not long after the team killed a very disputable too many men on the ice penalty, the 20-year-old Eriksson Ek, two days after flying from Sweden to Frankfurt, Germany, to Chicago, to the Twin Cities, came off the bench and buried a beauty after a terrific passing setup between Coyle and Jared Spurgeon.
The goal supplied the Wild with their first two-goal lead since March 10, a span of 11 games.
