ST. Paul, Minn. _ Establishing leads, even cushy ones, hasn't been a problem for the Wild.
Protecting them, however, has produced mixed results.
But by assembling a three-goal head start in each of the last three games, the team is giving itself plenty of practice.
And that appears to be paying off, as the Wild shrugged off the Rangers, 3-2, on Tuesday in front of 18,887 at Xcel Energy Center to prolong their franchise-record point streak on home ice to 13 games _ the longest run in the NHL this season.
Three different lines headlined the early outburst of offense, with all three goals coming in less than seven minutes and off of just eight shots. Combine that execution with 32 saves by goalie Devan Dubnyk and the Wild had enough to withstand the forthcoming push by the Rangers, which didn't look easy to overcome.
Although New York has advertised a rebuild, revealing its plans to potentially trade away veterans to acquire younger players, it doesn't seem like its players have received the memo since the team responded with a pair of wins.
Based on how the Rangers started Tuesday, though, it made sense why management might be turning its focus to the future.
The team was discombobulated, getting overwhelmed by the Wild, who scored on just their first shot after an impressive individual effort from center Eric Staal.
After the Rangers bobbled Staal's clearing attempt along the boards, Staal picked up the puck, skated into the offensive zone and wired a wrist shot by goalie Henrik Lundqvist 3 minutes, 9 seconds into the opening period for his team-leading 25th goal.
Only 1:25 later, the Wild went up 2-0 on another nice hustle play _ this time from winger Zach Parise, whose interception of a Rick Nash pass in the defensive zone rolled by Lundqvist just inside the post. It was Parise's fourth point in his last four games.
The fourth line capped off the scoring on a Marcus Foligno one-timer that fooled Lundqvist, who totaled 26 saves, from the left faceoff circle at 6:17 in Foligno's 400th career game.
This was the third straight time the Wild raced out to a 3-0 lead and while they were able to hold off the Blackhawks for a shutout win Saturday, the Rangers eventually had a response similar to the Coyotes' when they rallied for a 4-3 overtime win last Thursday.
New York started to shift play to the other end of the rink and ended up capitalizing on its first power play at 8:50 of the first. Defenseman Anthony DeAngelo set up fellow blue liner John Gilmour for a one-timer that was Gilmour's first NHL goal.
That momentum carried over to the second, where the Rangers outshot the Wild 19-8, and another power-play goal trimmed New York's deficit again.
Center Kevin Hayes unleashed a shot off the rush at 11:46 by Dubnyk to make it 3-2. The Rangers finished 2-for-4 with the man advantage, while the Wild blanked on their lone opportunity.
With their lead slipping, the Wild had a much better push to start the third and began to close the gap on the shot discrepancy.
And that improvement was just the pressure the Wild needed to apply to slow down the Rangers, who had just four shots in the period compared to eight for the Wild.
