MONTREAL _ Even though Bruce Boudreau has implied lately that Devan Dubnyk's all-world play this season has been too under the radar league-wide, he wasn't about to throw gas on the billed Dubnyk vs. Carey Price show Thursday night.
"Carey Price is the gold standard and always will be probably until he retires," the Wild coach said. "But Duby has been great for us."
While Boudreau wanted no part of the "who has been the best goalie in the NHL" chatter, he was all for using the Montreal Canadiens as a "measuring stick."
With the Wild facing the best home team in the NHL, Boudreau wanted to see if his red-hot squad was up for the test.
Well, A's all around as the Wild twice rallied from one-goal deficits to beat the Habs, 4-2, at the Bell Centre.
Eric Staal scored his first short-handed goal in four seasons 3 minutes, 8 seconds into the third period to break a 2-2 deadlock and help lead the Wild extend their win streak to nine games and point streak to 10 (9-0-1). Both tied franchise record, the win streak being the longest since 2007.
It's the fifth win streak of nine or more games in Boudreau's career.
After a scoreless first period where Dubnyk and Price were up to the hype, the Wild fought back twice during a four-goal second goals by Jordan Schroeder, in the lineup only because of an ill Zach Parise, and Jared Spurgeon. Jason Zucker also added an empty-netter.
Dubnyk, rock bottom in 2014 when he was a Canadiens farmhand, made 32 saves to extend his career-best point streak to 10-0-2. He still has not allowed more than three goals in a game this season.
Dubnyk hasn't lost in regulation since Nov. 19, the Wild haven't lost in regulation since Nov. 29. The Canadiens fell to 15-3-2 at home.
Dubnyk entered with an NHL-best 1.55 goals-against average, .948 save percentage and five shutouts. Price entered third with a .936 save percentage and 1.87 goals-against average.
Asked in the morning what odds he'd put on a low-scoring, goalie duel, Dubnyk joked, "I like to gamble, but not on hockey."
Dubnyk admires the decorated Price, who has backstopped Canada to gold medals at an Olympics and World Cup and has a Jennings, Vezina and Hart in his overstuffed trophy case.
He was up to the task early, stopping 11 shots to Price's 13 in the first.
In the second, a sloppy Wild power play resulted in Habs captain Max Pacioretty scoring the first shorthanded goal against Minnesota this season. It was also only the third time in 14 games the Wild surrendered the first goal and first deficit since Dec. 9 six games before.
It felt like the Wild were toast when one noted the Canadiens were 17-2-2 when scoring first, but Schroeder tied the score on a wraparound Price wanted back. But 2:24 later, Artturi Lehkonen scored a go-ahead goal when Matt Dumba lost him and Dubnyk served Brian Flynn's rebound up on a silver platter.
But the Wild again tied the score after a Mikko Koivu faceoff win to Jonas Brodin. Seconds later, tic-tac-toe between Mikael Granlund, Zucker and Spurgeon, who went bar down in his 400th NHL game for his first goal since Oct. 18.
Ryan Suter and Granlund teamed to assist on Staal's 17th career short-handed goal and 11th this season, which tied Charlie Coyle for the team lead.
Both teams were without key players.
The Canadiens were minus centers Alex Galchenyuk, David Desharnais and Andrew Shaw and defensemen Andrei Markov, Alexei Emelin and Greg Pateryn. The Wild's Erik Haula is sidelined, and Parise was scratched with another head cold.
Parise's absence caused Boudreau to load up the top two lines. He moved Staal between Nino Niederreiter and Coyle and kept the Zucker-Koivu-Granlund line intact.
That meant some makeshift third and fourth lines: Chris Stewart-Tyler Graovac-Jason Pominville and Schroeder-Pat Cannone-Kurtis Gabriel.
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