I immediately looked at the Wild bench tonight after Winnipeg's Mathieu Perreault made it 2-0 a mere 20 seconds into the second period.

I just had to see the Wild's reaction and the response of players because this is a sick, tired and frustrated team that can't seem to get any breaks or do anything right and here we were in a game the Wild was finally dominating 5-on-5 and it was somehow still down 2-0 because of two very lousy penalty kills.

The first thing I noticed was assistant coach Darryl Sydor clapping his hands to try to jar players from their somberness. I noticed a couple players barking and coach Mike Yeo shouting orders that players said afterward was, "Stick with it. Just stick with it."

The Wild's slump the past month has led to a lot of mistrust in each other. Guys start doing their own thing, not playing the system and deficits have quickly turned into bigger ones and eventually losses. You can't win in hockey when you have no clue what the guys next to you on the ice are going to do.

The Wild has deserved a lot of losses the past month. Tonight, it deserved to win and battled its way back to do just that and get a greasy one for a change – its first regulation win since Dec. 9 and its first win overall in six games to pull within five points of L.A. and seven of the Jets in a 1-0-1 home-and-home series.

"Our guys did a great job staying with it," Yeo said afterward. "Real happy with the way we played the game. Got contributions from everybody both ends in the rink. That's another step. … It's good we were able to bust through."

The Wild busted through because after that Perreault goal that Darcy Kuemper had no chance of stopping, he didn't let in another despite 21 more Jets shots. He made several bigtime saves to help win the Wild a game. Kuemper has been much better on the road than at home. He entered tonight with a .920 road save percentage as opposed to an .876 one at home.

Kuemper said afterward he still wasn't quite 100 percent and pretty tired from some bad-tasting chicken that caused his stomach to explode and for him to lose eight pounds, but he battled through.

It is impossible to win in the NHL with average goaltending.

"That's what we need from him," Yeo said. "If we get that kind of goaltending on a consistent basis, we're going to be a dangerous team. That's what he's capable of. We're trying to rush a young player along a little bit here, but that's the reality of where he's at. He's good enough to be our starter and to continually play games like that, so we need him to continue to step up."

In that second, the turning point came when a Jets defenseman made a dimwitted play. Ryan Carter played a puck with a high-stick. The ref had his hand up signifying it. Carter and Paul Postma surrounded the puck, and froze. Instead of letting Carter touch it or waiting for a whistle (nine times out of 10 when two players are doing this, the ref will just blow the play dead), Postma tried to quickly chip the puck out of the zone.

Kyle Brodziak, who was good tonight meaning Erik Haula likely will have to wait to return to the lineup, picked off the clearing attempt, hit Brett Sutter, who hit Carter for a nice deke and roof job goal, his first in 16 games since Nov. 13.

Later, Sutter made a great play along the wall to set up a charging Justin Fontaine for his second goal in the past 24 games and Sutter's first career multi-point game (57th game in seven seasons).

Yeo praised the Sutter-Brodziak-Carter line bigtime, saying they helped turn momentum by playing physical and playing in the offensive zone. He said the Wild liked Sutter's game during his previous callup stint and this is what they want from him as long as he's in the lineup.

Sutter said it's easy to play with Brodziak and Carter and praised the team game from the Wild tonight, saying, "When you can utilize four lines and all sets of D, it's a huge for a team to be able to roll, especially on the road."

Finally, with the game tied, Zach Parise teed a drop pass up for Marco Scandella as they entered the offensive zone. Scandella let it rip for the go-ahead goal with 11.2 seconds left in the second.

It was Scandella's ninth goal, which is tied for fifth in the NHL among defensemen (second-most though among NHL defensemen). His four winning goals is tied for first among NHL defenseman and his 0.3 goals per game rank first among NHL defensemen.

"In junior I was an offensive threat, and it's starting to come," Scandella said.

Ryan Suter struggled tonight. He is minus-8 in nine games since coming back from the mumps and made mistakes on both Jets power-play goals tonight (those don't count as minuses; even-strength + shorthanded goals vs. even-strength allowed + shorthanded goals allowed).

I asked Yeo if the Wild may consider putting Scandella on the No. 1 power-play unit over Suter (as much as that probably kill Suter). Yeo admitted the Wild coaching staff talked about it between periods.

Yeo said that assistant coach Rick Wilson did point out there that "he's playing so well in the defensive side and just playing the game the right way, and that's how his offense is coming. Sometimes when you give players a little bit more on top of that, then it takes away from things, but certainly that's something that we're going to look that."

Technically, the opposite could be said, too. Perhaps taking a little No. 1 unit time away from Suter may help his overall game by lessening his workload. He just hasn't been the same Suter since returning from the mumps, which ravaged these infected defensemen physically.

Scandella's cannon would be a welcome threat on the No. 1 unit.

By the way, Scandella and Christian Folin had great games overall. Both were plus-3's. Scandella gave heavy praise to his partner's game after this one. It is amazing watching Scandella battle sometimes, by the way. Every shift is 100 percent all octane.

Sutter and Brodziak were plus-2's. Suter led with five blocked shots. Nino Niederreiter led with three hits. Thomas Vanek had four shots and showed his soccer skills by heading a puck out of the defensive zone.

Speaking of heads, Ben Chiarot head-butted Jason Pominville tonight. Uncalled, but we'll see if the NHL holds Chiarot to task.

That's it for me. By the way, I mentioned on Twitter and in the paper the other day Iowa's 9-2 loss and Johan Gustafsson's eight goals allowed. Nice response by them tonight. They rallied to beat Milwaukee 3-2 in overtime and Gustafsson made 30 saves.

I have a very early flight to Columbus in the morning through Minneapolis. My second flight has no Internet, so I'll be with you with any news after I land. Yeo was deciding whether or not to scrap practice, have an optional or a full one after the game, so I'll let you know. Sometimes rest is the best option and the Wild wasn't expecting to arrive in Columbus until 3 a.m. or so.