BUFFALO, N.Y. _ After a crummy start to its East Coast trek, Devan Dubnyk and the Wild ended in perfect fashion.
After shutting out the Boston Bruins earlier this week, Dubnyk and the Wild wrapped up their four-game trip with a 4-0 shutout over the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center on Thursday night.
Dubnyk made 38 saves for his 21st career shutout and second in a row, the first time he has held an opponent scoreless for 120 consecutive minutes since Feb. 3 and 7, 2015, against Chicago and Colorado _ his eighth and ninth starts as a member of the Wild. He stopped all 27 shots he faced Tuesday against the Bruins.
Despite playing without injured Jared Spurgeon and Erik Haula all road trip and losing defenseman Marco Scandella in the first period Thursday, the Wild finished the road trip 2-1-1 and takes a 5-2-1 record into their upcoming two-game homestand against Dallas and Buffalo.
Rookie Joel Eriksson Ek, who debut in the first game of the road trip with a goal, scored his first career winning goal Thursday. Jason Zucker, Ryan Suter and Mikko Koivu also scored for the Wild, who are 8-2 all-time in Buffalo.
Since debuting in Buffalo on Jan. 15, 2015, Dubnyk has won 63 games, the 63rd Thursday allowing him to overtake Dwayne Roloson for third in franchise history. His 12 shutouts with the Wild now tie him with Manny Fernandez for third in team history.
The one piece of bad news is Scandella was injured midway through the second period. During a pileup in front of the Wild net, Scandella's right knee got caught under him awkwardly as he tangled with Nicolas Deslauriers.
Scandella, in pain, had to hop to the bench and wasn't able to return. Suter took the brunt of his minutes. Also, Matt Dumba, who had an outstanding road trip, did an impressive job playing both the left and right sides.
The Wild now lead the NHL with 28 goals. Scandella, Nate Prosser and Christian Folin each had an assist against the Sabres, meaning all 20 Wild skaters on the roster have a point this season. The only forward without a goal is Mikael Granlund.
Tuesday in Boston, Eriksson Ek became the first Wild teenager in history and fourth Wild rookie to have three assists in a game. Thursday in Buffalo, he opened the scoring with a beautiful move, then goal less than five minutes in.
Flying down the right-wing boards, Eriksson Ek deked around a flat-footed Jake McCabe high in the Sabres' zone, then sped into the right circle. From above the faceoff dot, Eriksson Ek snapped a laser beam of a shot over Anders Nilsson's right shoulder for his second goal of the season.
In four games on the trip, he had five points.
Ten minutes later, Zucker, who had struck out on five or six breakaways this season, buried one this time. He took Chris Stewart's head-man pass, burst into the offensive zone with speed and roofed his second goal in as many games with a sweet backhander.
In the second period, it was all Dubnyk. He made 19 saves in the period, 15 in the first 6 minutes, 11 seconds of the period. The Wild, who had a league-best 15 goals and plus-9 second-period goal differential, were outshot 19-4 in the middle frame.
But Dubnyk managed to hold the Wild's 2-0 lead. The Wild also killed two power plays in the period and has now killed 22 of 23 opposing power plays this season.
In the third, Suter ripped his third goal of the season with a wrister from above the top of the left circle after a great pass from Zach Parise.
