DALLAS – As Darcy Kuemper tried to recover from a shocking end to the second period Friday night that saw a Wild 3-0 lead crumble in minutes for a third time this season, the goaltender kept one eye on the locker-room door half-expecting goalie coach Bob Mason to walk in with the hook.

But as Kuemper — one game after being chased against Los Angeles — tried to calm the nerves, captain Mikko Koivu and defenseman Ryan Suter crept to his corner with words of encouragement.

"Hey, you're playing good. Don't worry about it. Just refocus," Kuemper said they told him. "It just gave me a vote of confidence knowing they have your back and are confident in you. It allowed me to find that confidence again."

After giving up goals on Dallas' final three shots of the second period, Kuemper was allowed courageously (or crazily) by coach Mike Yeo to finish what he started in a 5-4 Wild victory. Kuemper stopped 19 of 20 shots in the final 20 minutes, and even though he gave up the go-ahead goal to Alex Goligoski, Thomas Vanek forced overtime with 1 minute, 52 seconds left.

Then, amazingly for the second time in 12 days, defenseman Marco Scandella saved the Wild's hide after a blown 3-0 lead with the overtime winner 2:04 into the extra session. That's right, on Nov. 16 — the last time the Wild let a 3-0 lead evaporate — Scandella, too, scored the overtime winner in his return from the mumps.

"It's an awesome feeling, especially the roller coaster style of game that it was," Scandella said.

Vanek, a lightning rod for criticism all game (his lack of an attempt on a line change to reach for a puck led to Dallas' second goal), let alone all season (one goal before Friday), made the play. He pounced on a loose puck in the defensive zone, and then hustled up the ice with Scandella to his right on a 2-on-2.

As Vanek crossed the blue line, he peeled off, drew defenseman Jason Demers to him and hit Zach Parise for a 2-on-1. Parise fed Scandella at the goal mouth to the right of Kari Lehtonen for the tap-in winner.

This came after Yeo pulled Kuemper with 2:01 left for an extra attacker. Yeo put out the same veterans — Parise, Vanek, Suter, Koivu and Jason Pominville — and youngster Mikael Granlund who couldn't score the tying goal on a late power play last week at Tampa Bay.

This time, Parise won a puck battle with Jamie Benn, Suter got the puck to Vanek in the right circle and he ripped it for the tying goal.

It was Vanek's only shot of the game, and both of his goals this season in 22 games have come against Dallas.

"I think we play them two more times, so hopefully I can get my total to four," Vanek joked. "This is obviously not the start I wanted, but I can't dwell on the last 20 games."

The Wild, winners of four of its past five on the road, has won six of eight overall. The Wild's well aware of the NHL's Thanksgiving "rule" that has seen 77.3 percent of teams inside the top eight in their conference at Thanksgiving make the playoffs.

The Wild is ninth in the West, two points behind Winnipeg as it opens a four-game homestand Saturday against St. Louis.

But Friday could have been a whole lot worse after Nino Niederreiter, Jason Zucker and Granlund built the Wild a 3-0 lead. Late in the second, Ales Hemsky, who had no goals in 21 games this season, Tyler Seguin and Erik Cole scored in the final 3:42 of the period.

"The buzzer came at a good time for us," Kuemper said. "We were in good control 3-0, and all of sudden, kind of three mistakes and bang-bang bang, tie game. It was a perfect time for the intermission," he said with a chuckle.

"But the leaders stepped up and calmed everyone down. Every one took a deep breath, me included."