ST. PAUL, Minn. _ For the second time in franchise history and first time since winning the now-defunct Northwest Division in 2008, the Wild will have home-ice advantage in a playoff series when the Stanley Cup playoffs begin next Wednesday.
On a night of short-lived leads for the Wild, their fourth lead was finally good enough for the Wild, who closed the regular-season home slate with a 5-3 win over the Carolina Hurricanes.
Nino Niederreiter scored two goals and an assist, Zach Parise had a goal and two assists and Eric Staal had two assists as the Wild's top line combined for eight points. Charlie Coyle scored the winning goal in the second period and Jordan Schroeder potted his second goal in as many games.
After a rough start that saw him give up three goals on six shots, Devan Dubnyk settled in nicely by stopping all 24 shots he saw in the second and third periods for his 39th win.
The Wild, who cemented the second seed in the Central Division and will host the St. Louis Blues or Nashville Predators in Games 1 and 2 next season, won their 27th home game, their second-most home wins in franchise history.
With 102 points, the Wild sit two points from matching their franchise record for most points in a season. The Wild play at Colorado on Thursday and at Arizona on Saturday.
All wasn't peachy for the Wild. They lost first-pair defenseman Jared Spurgeon 6 minutes, 11 seconds into the second period with a lower body injury.
He was hit behind the net cleanly by Teuvo Teravainen, then got into a board battle with the former Chicago Blackhawks forward. Spurgeon looked uncomfortable and slow while regrouping when play went up the ice.
The Wild dominated the first period, scoring three goals and outshooting the Hurricanes, 16-6.
But, the Hurricanes scored on three of those six shots.
Parise struck first with his 19th goal at the 5:39 mark by burying Staal's setup. It came after Niederreiter gathered the puck after Staal was robbed by his buddy, Cam Ward, on a 3-on-1, tic-tac-toe down low with Spurgeon and Niederreiter.
But 1:17 later, Lee Stempniak tied the score at 1 when Marco Scandella and Matt Dumba both skated to the puck carrier, Jeff Skinner, and Stempniak got a step on Mikko Koivu.
Still, Dubnyk was very late to read the play and come across, and Skinner beat him over the glove from the goalmouth on a 2-on-1 feed.
The Wild took a 2-1 lead on Jordan Schroeder's sixth goal off Joel Eriksson Ek's setup. But three seconds into an Erik Haula's penalty, Skinner one-timed an unscreened rocket over Dubnyk's left shoulder from the right circle.
Less than two minutes later, Niederreiter, who also assisted on Parise's goal, found a deflected shot at his feet and gave the Wild their one-goal lead back. But 92 seconds later and with 11.1 seconds left in the period, the score was tied at 3.
Dumba coughed up the puck, and then all heck broke loose when a shot deflected off Ryan Suter to the feet of Parise and Coyle. Both couldn't gain control of the puck, but Skinner found it in traffic and whipped it past Dubnyk from the slot.
The crowd of 18,848 voiced audible frustration.
But Dubnyk stopped all 12 shots he faced in the second period, including five on two Carolina power plays. And Coyle gave the Wild a 4-3 lead with his 18th goal when he buried Christian Folin's rebound after Martin Hanzal's clean faceoff win.
Hanzal won 10 of 14 faceoffs through two periods and has 12 points in 18 games with the Wild.
The Wild nearly extended their lead when Coyle feed after another great Hanzal play almost deflected past Ward off Jason Pominville's left skate. But Ward made a clutch save by grasping the puck in the air at the goal line.
But in the third, after Ward denied Haula on a breakaway, Parise and Staal battled valiantly in the corner before Parise teed up Niederreiter's 24th.
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