DALLAS – During the Wild's recent four-game losing streak, it's very clear that Mike Yeo met with his "young guys" — Mikael Granlund, Charlie Coyle, Nino Niederreiter, Jason Zucker and Erik Haula — to let them know they're no longer "young guys."

Call it a little motivational pushing and prodding from the Wild coach, who so far has gotten the response he wanted during a two-game winning streak — the latest being Saturday's 2-1 win over the Stars.

One game after Niederreiter's hat trick and Coyle's two assists, Haula scored the tying goal Saturday, Coyle assisted on Granlund's winner and Yeo tapped on the shoulders of Coyle, Zucker and Granlund to defend the game in the final minute with a Stars extra attacker on the ice.

"I'm going to quit referring to them as young guys because they're part of our team," Yeo said. "They're just players on our team. They're no longer young guys. These guys are on second lines, first power plays, whatever. We need these guys not to be young guys and get excited when they play.

"These guys have a lot of potential and the reason that they're in high spots in our lineup is because we know what they're capable of, so we count on them to do it ­regularly."

Coyle was beating himself up after the game because he twice didn't get the puck out in the final minute, but he admitted that it gives him and the (former) young guys a lot of confidence when Yeo shows such confidence in them.

"We've got to know that we're a big part of this team, so we've got to be ready for that," Coyle said. "We want that. We want to be the guy to be called on at the end there to help your team win."

For a second consecutive game, the Niederreiter- Granlund-Coyle line was arguably the Wild's best, which means there's a chance Zach Parise will be reunited with Mikko Koivu and Jason Pominville when he returns from a concussion. That could come as early as Sunday against ­Winnipeg. That could drop Zucker, who played another strong game Saturday in all areas, down to the third line.

"He's playing really well, but we want to keep pushing him to get better and we're going to do the same for the rest of the group," Yeo said.

First time outshot

The Wild (9-7) was outshot (28-22) Saturday for the first time this season, but goalie Darcy Kuemper, who made 27 saves, credited his defenders for great boxouts, which allowed him to see the puck.

For the second straight Wild-Stars meeting, the Jamie Benn-Jason Spezza-Tyler Seguin juggernaut of a line was barely noticeable. Kuemper stopped Benn and Seguin six times.

"If you're going to stop that line, you're going to need good goaltending and the one save that stuck out to me was early in the third period when Benn got that shot off in the slot," Yeo said. "Darcy had real good focus in this game. That could've completely changed the complexion of the game, but with that I think it's just an awareness of who's on the ice and there's certainly a respect factor. We know how dangerous those guys are."

Etc.

Chanhassen native Stu Bickel became the 20th Minnesota native and 12th former Gopher to skate for the Wild. The defenseman played right wing on the fourth line. He had a penalty his first shift but was plus-1 and had two hits. …

Yeo wouldn't say if defensemen Marco Scandella and Jonas Brodin officially have the mumps and in fact didn't rule them out to play Sunday against Winnipeg.