ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Enduring a difficult start to January, the Minnesota Wild never believed they were out of the playoff race. But players like Zach Parise acknowledged how bleak the situation looked when Minnesota fell to 12th in the West and eight points out of the eighth and final playoff spot.
A 7-0 victory at Buffalo snapped a six-game losing streak and allowed the Wild to take a deep breath. A new goaltender arrived in Devan Dubnyk. A long, hard climb was ahead.
Little more than five weeks later, the Wild have no trouble seeing the playoff possibilities. Minnesota's 6-2 win Sunday night against the Dallas Stars officially put the Wild back among the top eight teams in the Western Conference.
"It's nice to get in there, and nice to make a little movement in the standings for us," said Parise, who scored twice. "It felt like for the longest time we were winning and not going anywhere. It's a long way to go, but you've got to get in sometime and somehow, and it's nice to be back in."
Minnesota scored a franchise-record six times in the third period against Jhonas Enroth -- who allowed the seven goals in the earlier loss in Buffalo when he was a member of the Sabres. The Wild erased a 1-0 deficit with Parise's goal 1 minute, 40 seconds into the third and took the lead when Mikko Koivu scored less than two minutes later, as Minnesota took advantage of a weary team which had played a night earlier in Dallas.
The Stars had lost one game in regulation all season when leading after two periods. But the Wild have gained an air of confidence in the past month.
"We just believe we can do it in here," Dubnyk said. "The conversation between the second and third period was exactly that -- just a strong belief in here that if we went out there and did what we were capable of doing that we could take the game over. Obviously you never expect to put up six in a period. But even to work to get that 3-1 lead was huge for us."
Minnesota is an NHL-best 13-2-2 since Dubnyk arrived. The playoffs seemed a remote possibility on Jan. 14 when Dubnyk was acquired in a trade and the Wild were in 12th place. Sunday's victory put Minnesota in a playoff spot for the first time since Nov. 24.
Even during the early portion of the Wild's current streak, gaining position was difficult in the tight Western Conference. Slowly, Minnesota started to peck away at the deficit and climb over teams.
"It seemed like we could never break that barrier," Dubnyk said. "We just kept winning and couldn't really seem to get into that spot. So it's certainly nice to get there. I fully believe we're going to just keep climbing. I think if we just keep playing like we have and keep getting two points when they're available to us, we're just going to keep climbing up and we'll be in a good spot at the end of the year."
The Wild's 69 points are good for seventh in the West. They rank eighth in the playoff seeding with Los Angeles, Calgary and San Jose tied with 68 points and tied for the Pacific Division's guaranteed third playoff spot.
"There's a lot of work to be done," head coach Mike Yeo said. "To be honest, yesterday we were outside of the top eight. I don't think that it meant anything. And tonight we're inside the top eight and I don't think it means anything again. We put in a lot of work and we've done a lot of good things.
"But I've said this before, we got ourselves back in the hunt and now we have to take advantage of it."
Minnesota has reached this point with a one-game-at-a-time mentality. Following Sunday's win, Koivu said he wasn't even aware the Wild had climbed to eighth.
"I didn't even know what happened in the other games," Koivu said. "I don't think it's going to change anything for us. We knew we were close before this one and if you say we're in or we're not in, but it's not going to change a thing for us. We can't just relax and be happy about it. We've got to prepare again. Again, we're going to play on Tuesday, so one day between. I know it probably sounds like a cliche but that really is the deal."
Sticking to a one-game-at-a-time mentality is certainly easier with victories and a playoff spot.
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