Wild Roll To 3-0 Win Over Blackhawks
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Devan Dubnyk stopped 24 shots in his third shoutout since joining Minnesota in mid-January, leading the Wild to their fourth straight win, 3-0 over the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday night.
Mikko Koivu, Jason Zucker and Mikael Granlund each scored for the Wild. Since being acquired by Minnesota in a trade with Arizona, Dubnyk is 6-1 with a 1.57 goals against average. He has four shutouts overall this season.
The Blackhawks, fourth in the Western Conference, spent the previous two days in Las Vegas and were outshot 43-24. They've been shut out in their last two and haven't won consecutive games in over a month.
Coming off three straight road wins on a Western Canadian trip, Koivu flipped in a backhander at 7:45 of the first period to keep the Wild rolling on their return home.
Marco Scandella's cross-ice pass set up Zucker on a breakaway for his 18th goal of the season midway through the first period.
After the Wild dominated play throughout the second, they finally netted the third goal on Granlund's one-timer from between the circles at 14:12 that zipped past Corey Crawford.
Crawford had beat Minnesota twice this season before Tuesday, stopping 78 of 81 shots.
After winning seven of their first eight at home to start the season, the Wild fell apart in December and January. They had won just four of their previous 15 at the Xcel Energy Center before Tuesday.
Minnesota has won four straight in regulation for the first time since late March of 2013, and plays four of its next five at home as it tries to climb back into the playoff picture.
NOTES: Wild LW Matt Cooke missed the game with a lower body injury and could be out for a while, according to coach Mike Yeo ... Blackhawks enforcer Daniel Carcillo was eligible to return from a six-game suspension, but did not play ... Minnesota placed RW Justin Fontaine on injured reserve and recalled C Jordan Schroeder from AHL Iowa ... Chicago hasn't scored since Patrick Kane's goal at 13:25 of the third period vs. Anaheim on Jan. 30, a span of 126 minutes, 35 seconds.
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