Minnesota Wild goaltender Devan Dubnyk might not need any rest.
Starting his 28th straight game on Saturday, Dubnyk had perhaps his best performance with Minnesota by making 41 saves as the Wild came from behind on the road to beat the St. Louis Blues 3-1.
St. Louis controlled play for much of the first two periods as Dubnyk kept Minnesota in the game, and the Wild found their energy to score twice in the third period and win their seventh straight road game. Minnesota won in regulation in St. Louis for the first time since 2007.
Dubnyk has started 27 consecutive games since being acquired by Minnesota in a trade in January. Saturday's performance was the second half of a back-to-back with Dubnyk starting both games. The 41 saves were the most he's made in a Wild uniform.
Minnesota was outshot 32-10 through two periods. But Dubnyk allowed just one goal on a deflection by David Backes. Nino Niederreiter scored his 22nd goal of the season to break the tie in the third period and Kyle Brodziak added his ninth goal of the season just 17 seconds later after a turnover.
THREE STARS
1. Dubnyk, G, Wild: Could there be anyone else? Dubnyk was superb Saturday against St. Louis, one of the top scoring teams in the NHL. Dubnyk had to be at his best in the second, when the Blues outshot the Wild 21-5 and maintained possession in the offensive zone for much of the period.
Dubnyk has set a career high and a franchise record with his consecutive games streak, which is the longest in the NHL since Anaheim's Jonas Hiller started 32 straight games in 2012. Minnesota head coach Mike Yeo has faced many questions about when he might give Dubnyk a day off, but the goaltender is making the decision difficult for his coach.
Dubnyk is 20-5-1 with the Wild and has a 1.66 goals-against average and .939 save percentage.
2. Niederreiter, F, Wild: Niederreiter has come up with big goals in his time in Minnesota and he added another Saturday. The tie game lingered into the final seven minutes until Niederreiter collected a loose puck on a rebound off St. Louis goaltender Brian Elliott and slid it in the goal from the side of the net.
Elliott was the only active goaltender to face the Wild at least five times with an undefeated record. He was 6-0-0 in his career against Minnesota.
Niederreiter keeps adding on to his career season and he's trying to find chemistry on a new line with captain Mikko Koivu and trade acquisition Chris Stewart. Stewart added three shots and three hits in a game against his former team.
3. David Backes, F, Blues: Backes always plays a physical game against Minnesota and Saturday was no exception. Backes sets the tone for the aggressive Blues. The forward played more than 20 minutes, had two shots on goal, one hit and one blocked shot while winning 60 percent of his faceoffs.
Backes' 23rd goal of the season gave St. Louis a 1-0 lead in the second period.
Seen: The Wild lost another defenseman. In the second period, Nate Prosser took a hit from Jori Lehtera and skated gingerly to the bench. He stayed on the bench for a few minutes before going back to the locker room. Prosser didn't return and logged just 5 minutes, 57 seconds of ice time.
Minnesota is getting used to playing with just five defensemen and managed on Saturday, but the injuries have piled up. Jared Spurgeon recently returned from injury and the team picked up Jordan Leopold in a trade to help the defensive depth. Marco Scandella has missed seven games with an upper-body injury and likely won't return by the next game.
Said: "It was good. I think we looked at last night. You never want to make excuses but we certainly feel like the game could have gone the other way for us. We felt like we played a pretty good game. This is always a difficult building to come into, never mind on a back to back. I haven't had a ton of success personally against St. Louis in the past, so I was looking forward to the opportunity with the new team to squash that. It was a new challenge for me. With these games coming up, these are all possible first-round opponents if we're able to make the playoffs. So, these are important games to get good feelings in other team's buildings." -- Dubnyk.
Next: Dubnyk and the Wild have a chance to rest a bit. Minnesota travels to Nashville but is off until Tuesday when it wraps up the short two-game road trip against the Predators, who started Saturday tied with St. Louis atop the Central Division with 91 points.
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