Granlund goals spark Wild past Canadiens

MONTREAL – John Torchetti said it's way too early to scoreboard-watch the Colorado Avalanche, but Devan Dubnyk had no choice Saturday night.

At the Bell Centre, out-of-town scores scroll continuously in the end zone directly in the goalie's line of vision. So, Dubnyk was well aware the Avs held a 2-0 lead in Winnipeg before the Jets stormed back in the third period to take a regulation victory and two precious points from Colorado.

So that, coupled with the Wild's 4-1 win to end the depleted Montreal Canadiens' eight-game home point streak, pulled Minnesota at least temporarily back into the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference.

"I maybe saw it once … or eight times," Dubnyk said of Avs-Jets score.

Dubnyk, coming off a rough start six nights earlier and an illness that caused him to miss a game, made 14 of his 30 saves in the third period to help end the Wild's two-game losing streak.

In front of a "Hockey Night in Canada'' audience, Mikael Granlund scored his career-high ninth and 10th goals of the season for his first career two-goal game. Nino Niederreiter scored a goal and assist, former Canadien Thomas Vanek had two assists and Erik Haula scored an empty-net goal as the Wild improved to 6-2 on the road under Torchetti.

That's big because the Wild has been lousy at home in 2016 (2-8-3). Last season, the Wild was an NHL-best 15-2-1 on the road in the second half to drive into the postseason.

"I don't know why we're better on the road than at home," Dubnyk said. "The way we play on the road is just simple, not trying to impress anybody. We play hard defensively, and we get big goals from guys at the right times. That's what we were doing last year and what we're starting to do this year."

The Wild obviously wants to figure it out at Xcel Energy Center, but first things first, the Wild wants to carry Saturday's play into Tuesday's game at Ottawa and Thursday's game at New Jersey.

After a slow start by both teams, former Wild farmhand Mike Condon spiced things up by lollygagging out of his net and coughing up the puck at the blue line to Niederreiter.

With Condon in no man's land, defenseman Alexei Emelin tried to get in front of Niederreiter, but the big left winger made a couple of moves, deked and whistled his 15th goal into a wide-open net.

"I was a little surprised I got that puck from him," Niederreiter said.

Canadiens defenseman Mark Barberio tied the score, but Granlund answered 67 seconds later after Matt Dumba's tremendous pinch down the left-wing wall, then backhanded a cross-rink pass to the far circle for Granlund.

In the second period, Granlund made it 3-1 with a power-play goal, the Wild's 15th in a franchise-record 13 consecutive road games, the longest streak in the NHL since 2007.

Marco Scandella, on the power play with Mike Reilly scratched and Jason Pominville injured, wristed a shot into traffic. With Vanek and Niederreiter wreaking havoc, Vanek sprung the puck to a wide-open Granlund.

"Granny's just got to start shooting the puck some more. He is a great shooter," Torchetti said.

Said Granlund: "It's always nice to score goals, but I think those two points we got, that's the most important thing."

The Wild sat back too much for comfort in the third, but Dubnyk was outstanding. The Mikko Koivu and Haula lines, along with mostly defensemen Ryan Suter and Jared Spurgeon, also did a good job holding Alex Galchenyuk to two shots. Galchenyuk had five multi-goal games in the previous eight games.

Scandella, a Montreal native, was fantastic. He was on the ice for three goals after skating helmetless in warmups for the first time.

"The boys wanted me to do it. I had a lot of people in the stands," Scandella said, laughing.