ST. PAUL, Minn. _ The Wild avoided the temptation of taking off on an early holiday Thursday night by rolling into the All-Star break with a 5-1 rout of the St. Louis Blues.
After watching hockey around the league on his Center Ice package Wednesday night, coach Bruce Boudreau warned his team to "self-prepare" and not mentally vacate the Twin Cities prematurely.
The Wild entered the All-Star break with 32-11-5 record and the top spot in both the Western Conference and Central Division with 69 points in 48 games.
Devan Dubnyk, who leaves Friday for the All-Star Game, made 25 saves for his 27th victory.
Nino Niederreiter scored a goal and two assists for his second three-point game in the past five. Mikael Granlund extended his point streak to a career-high nine games with a goal and assist. And, Erik Haula, Mikko Koivu, a stud against the Blues' top line all night, and Tyler Graovac also scored for the Wild, which is a league-best 21-3-2 since Dec. 2 and 9-2-1 since its 12-game winning streak end New Year's Eve.
Last season it took until March 3 and the 65th game for the Wild to surpass 69 points. Previously, the earliest the Wild had ever reached 69 points was in its 59th game.
At the All-Star break, the Wild's 17-6 at home and a league-best 15-5-5 on the road, including a franchise-record 13-game point streak. It leads the NHL with seven 30-plus-point scorers and eight 10-plus-goal scorers, the eighth coming Thursday courtesy of Haula's second-period goal.
The Wild have a plus-51 goal differential (excludes two shootout goals), lead the Western Conference with 160 goals, lead the Western Conference with 107 goals against and have the league's best home power play (28.1 percent).
The Wild have scored four or more goals in 20 of 48 games, something they achieved in 82 games last season. They have scored five or more goals in nine of its past 21 games.
They have lost consecutive games in regulation once and their 11 regulation losses are fewest in the West. They have 14 come-from-behind victories after totaling just nine last season.
And on Thursday, they managed to not blow a two-goal lead, something that occurred in five of the previous seven games (they won three of those games).
It was the Wild's final home game until returning Feb. 8 to open eight consecutive games at home. The Wild open their post-All-Star Game schedule with a four-game trip starting in Edmonton on Tuesday.
After a scoreless first period, Haula got things started with his fourth goal in six games 23 seconds into the second period after an outstanding pass by Zach Parise. The Parise-Haula-Jason Pominville line is looking better and better nightly and gives Boudreau three so-called scoring lines.
Four minutes later though, the score was tied on Vladimir Tarasenko's 21st goal. After Jason Zucker couldn't convert off an energetic forecheck, Tarasenko split defensemen Marco Scandella and Matt Dumba for a breakaway goal.
But later in the period, Dumba headmanned a bank pass to Niederreiter, who flew into the offensive zone and cut to the net off a nifty move on Robert Bortuzzo. Niederreiter lost the puck but threw it in the crease and it banked in off Graovac's left skate.
It was Graovac's fourth goal of the season and second goal and point in his past 31 games.
Granlund drew a late penalty, and on the ensuing power play, the lead extended to 3-1 on Koivu's 15th goal of the season and second power-play goal in as many games. Niederreiter and Koivu won puck battles, and after Granlund was denied by Carter Hutton, Koivu shoveled the rebound home with 12 seconds left in the period.
The Wild then scored twice in the first 2:11 of the third period to chase goalie Carter Hutton, the first on Niederreiter's 15th, the second on Granlund's 12th, coming 42 seconds apart.
