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Wild finds its offense in whipping Coyotes

David Brewster, Star Tribune

Wild left winger Stephane Veilleux stickhandled toward the Phoenix goal Tuesday night. Veilleux recorded an assist in the Wild's 6-3 victory.

Needing to stifle a Phoenix rally, Minnesota got a big goal on a third-period breakaway by Cal Clutterbuck.

By MICHAEL RUSSO, Star Tribune

Last update: January 14, 2009 - 7:03 AM

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WILD 6, PHOENIX 3

Up next: 7 p.m. Thursday vs. Edmonton • Xcel Energy Center • FSN

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Maybe the Phoenix Coyotes were frozen solid.

It was minus-8 outside at puck-drop time, and the boys from Arizona are used to shorts and tank tops, not long johns and parkas.

Whatever the reason for their sluggish start, the Coyotes often provide the tonic to the Wild's ills, and that happened again Tuesday night when the Wild opened the floodgates for a change during a 6-3 pounding of one of its favorite victims.

"Six goals -- we don't get that too often," coach Jacques Lemaire said, laughing. "It's nice. And you know what? We needed them to win."

Coming off consecutive road losses in which it barely threatened offensively, the Wild jumped out to an early lead and kept scoring for a seventh consecutive home victory over the Coyotes.

Six different goal scorers supplied six even-strength goals for the Wild -- quite the feat for the lowest-scoring team in the West.

"It's really hard to win when you score one or two goals a game, there's no doubt," said defenseman Marc-Andre Bergeron.

"We're capable of doing this," added Owen Nolan, one of six Wild players with two points.

Out since Dec. 19 because of a sprained knee, Bergeron returned after one practice and scored on his first shift 46 seconds into the game, the quickest the Wild had struck all season.

"That was a nice welcome back," Bergeron said.

But this was a game in which the guys who are supposed to score did.

Nolan scored in the Wild's first two-goal first period at home since Dec. 1. Andrew Brunette and Mikko Koivu had a goal and an assist apiece. For Brunette, it was his first goal since Dec. 17, for Koivu his first since Dec. 19.

"For this team to be successful, [Brunette and Koivu] have to keep scoring," Lemaire said.

It was only the second time in the past 18 games the Wild had scored more than three goals, and the Wild needed them. After Koivu's beauty gave the Wild a 4-1 lead 34 seconds into the third period, Olli Jokinen and Steven Reinprecht trimmed the deficit to 4-3.

Cal Clutterbuck put an end to the fans' anxiety when he reached out and caught Kim Johnsson's 100-foot head-man, saucer pass. Clutterbuck sped in on a breakaway and skied his fifth goal over Ilya Bryzgalov to give the Wild a 5-3 lead with 6:36 left.

"Kimmy made a great play. It was like a Hail Mary," Clutterbuck said. "You take off like that a couple times a game and you kind of hope to get it. But I got it that time and was fortunate enough to score. It was a little page out of the Vikings' book."

James Sheppard scored a few minutes later to give the Wild its most goals at home since Jan. 3, 2008 (Dallas).

"It gets a little bit easier to make plays when you get rewarded once in a while," Koivu said.

Niklas Backstrom made 21 saves to improve to 9-1 all-time against the Coyotes.

The Wild has beaten Phoenix in 12 of the past 14 meetings overall.

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