ST. PAUL, Minn. _ Getting used to a new coaching staff and way of doing things, the Wild have played 240 minutes of hockey this season.
There have been portions of good play, portions of bad, and Thursday night against the Toronto Maple Leafs, there was a lot of the latter during the first two periods.
But sparked by minor league journeyman Zac Dalpe, the Wild rallied in the third period to complete a 3-0 homestand with a 3-2 victory.
Dalpe, with rookie Joel Eriksson Ek in the minors pushing to take his job, scored the tying goal _ the 12th NHL goal in his eight-year pro career _ off a tremendous individual effort and Eric Staal scored his 48th career game-winning goal with his second tally of the night.
After a season-opening loss in St. Louis, the Wild hits the road with a 3-1 record. The team heads to New Jersey and the Islanders for back-to-back games Saturday and Sunday, then Boston and Buffalo. The Wild was a disappointing 13-16-3 (29 out of 64 points) against the Eastern Conference last season but opens 1-0 this season after extending its win streak against Toronto to six games..
Looking to spark anything with the Wild trailing 2-1, coach Bruce Boudreau swapped Jason Zucker and Nino Niederreiter to start the third period, pushing Niederreiter down to the fourth line.
On his first shift there, Niederreiter pushed a pass ahead to Dalpe. But instead of head-manning the puck to Teemu Pulkkinen, Dalpe lugged the puck up ice, dragged defender Connor Brown with him, cut to the net and tucked a shot inside the post.
It was a heck of a play for Dalpe, 26, a depth forward who has played 120 NHL games for four franchises.
He made the most of his ice time, logging 6 minutes, 35 seconds, taking three shots and winning all six of his faceoffs.
Later in the period, after the Wild couldn't convert on a third power play, Staal found a loose puck behind the net, centered himself and whipped a shot through Zach Parise for his third goal of the season.
Wild players do look caught in between two systems and styles, maybe understandable after knowing five years of Mike Yeo's way like the back of their hand. It's also why Boudreau said Thursday morning that it'll take longer than the first week of the season for players to totally get it.
"I think by 30 games, 40 games, we'll be pretty good with what we're doing automatically," he said.
The Wild, for whatever explanation, looked out of sync the first 40 minutes of Thursday's game. Playing against a young team that coughed up a four-goal lead and lost in overtime the night before in Winnipeg, it was the Wild that was late to pucks, lost battles and spent way too much time in its own zone.
For the fourth straight game, the Wild served up the first goal and then gave up its first power-play goal of the season to rookie Auston Matthews after Staal's breakaway goal tied it up.
Devan Dubnyk, who made 31 saves, was sharp as a tack early. It was a good thing because his teammates were far from it.
Dubnyk faced a first-period shot deficit of 11-2 at one juncture, and that's with the Wild holding Toronto without a shot for the first 6:35. But Dubnyk kept the game scoreless.
Facing a goalie in Jhonas Enroth that gave up 18 goals against the Wild in three games two seasons ago, including seven in Dubnyk's Wild debut in Buffalo, Minnesota only made him make five saves in the first.
Then, after Roman Polak gave the Maple Leafs a 1-0 lead in the second, the Wild couldn't tie the score despite a sequence where Enroth played without his stick for 30 seconds. Parise, without a goal in four games, had two opportunities.
But Charlie Coyle eventually sprung Staal for a breakaway, and the veteran tied the game at 1-1 with his second goal of the season.
The Maple Leafs thought Morgan Rielly scored the go-ahead goal 35 seconds later, but referee Brad Meier waved it off because James van Riemsdyk impeded Dubnyk's ability to make the save.
But Christian Folin took his second of three minor penalties in the game, and for the first time this season, the Wild surrendered a power-play goal. Late in the 13th opposing advantage, Dubnyk made two solid stops on Matthews and William Nylander, but the Wild killers couldn't clear the puck. Matthews easily collected a loose puck and whistled home his fifth goal and first since his four-goal NHL debut.
