PITTSBURGH _ Playing one of three teams in the NHL that was unbeaten at home and the defending Stanley Cup champions to boot, Wild coach Bruce Boudreau jokingly called Thursday's game against the Pittsburgh Penguins "just another day at the beach."
After all, the Penguins had won 35 of their past 45 home games, had a seven-game point streak against the Wild and usually smoked Minnesota in the state of Pennsylvania.
Plus, the Wild had played twice in the month of November.
Pregame woe-is-meing by Boudreau aside, the Wild played arguably their best game of the season. They recorded a season-high 44 shots, got three points from Eric Staal for the first time in his Wild career and snapped a modest two-game skid with a 4-2 win over last season's Cup winners.
Tying goals by Charlie Coyle and Nino Niederreiter got the Wild into the third period in a 2-2 game, and after the Wild weren't able to cash in on a 74-second 5-on-3 that carried over between the second and third, the Wild got the go-ahead goal anyway.
Staal backhanded his team-leading fifth goal of the season off Coyle's rebound. After Ryan Suter lugged the puck up ice and Coyle nearly turned it over before getting it deep, Staal's forecheck led to a won puck battle behind the net.
A surging Niederreiter forced Pittsburgh into a turnover and the Wild took a 3-2 lead. Staal has scored 22 goals and 51 points in 50 career games against the Penguins.
Devan Dubnyk, who has given up six goals in his past 21 periods, made a season-high 39 saves and Jason Pominville added an empty-netter. Boudreau improved to 15-5-4 all-time against Pittsburgh.
The Wild had lost three in a row in Pittsburgh, outscored 16-5 in the process. Instead, the Wild handed Pittsburgh, 35-7-4 now in their past 46 home games, their first regulation home loss in eight games this season.
It was understandable that the Wild would start slow. Having played twice in 11 days and once in eight, Boudreau expected rustiness.
The Wild looked incredulous to the Penguins' speed early. It seemed players were slapping at pucks and instantly handing problems to somebody else.
Coyle really struggled early with two defensive-zone turnovers, including one to Sidney Crosby seconds into the game, one neutral-zone turnover and a tired-looking icing. But after Crosby gave Pittsburgh an early 1-0 lead with a power-play redirection of a Phil Kessel shot, Coyle tied the score.
On easily the Wild's best power play of the season, the Wild circled the zone for more than a minute after the Mikael Granlund-Mikko Koivu-Pominville line and defensemen Jonas Brodin and Christian Folin forced Trevor Daley into a penalty.
After some great puck movement, Suter whistled a shot on net that Coyle tipped behind his back for his fourth goal of the season.
The Wild settled down from there and didn't give up a shot in the final 4:52 of the period.
In the second, the Wild's penalty kill, which entered the game a league-best 29 for 31, gave up another.
Before the game, Boudreau warned the Wild to stay out of the box and not give the Penguins' power play clicking at 32 percent unneeded opportunities.
The first power-play goal came after a too-many-men penalty, the second after Dubnyk took a rare playing the puck outside the trapezoid delay of game penalty. Dubnyk was put in a bad spot after Tyler Graovac's offensive-zone turnover.
On the ensuing power play, the Wild were doing a great job killing it off, but after the Penguins won a puck battle with Suter inside the Wild blue line, Patric Horvqvist's attempted cross-crease pass to Crosby deflected in off Suter's hand.
But the Wild tied the score after a battling cycle from the Niederreiter-Staal-Coyle line. After Suter got a puck deep, Staal came out of the corner with the puck, made a fabulous pass in tight to Niederreiter and the big forward roofed his third goal of the season.
