Wild's Gophers contingent powers victory over Hurricanes

Ski-U-Mah!

The Gophers beat Michigan in a home game Saturday night, but more former Gophers scored at Xcel Energy Center than current ones at Mariucci Arena.

Thomas Vanek scored two goals and Jordan Schroeder and Erik Haula one each as the Wild outlasted the Carolina Hurricanes 6-3 in an unexpectedly high-scoring affair to extend its point streak to a franchise-record-tying 10 games (8-0-2).

"They need to win. We need to win, so it's a good day for all of us," Vanek said of the Gophers and Wild both winning. "We hung on, but that's important. This time of year it's all about getting points, and we're getting them."

Even with all the Gophers pride, defenseman Nate Prosser, the pride of Elk River and product of Colorado College, scored the winning goal as the Wild (10-1-2 in its past 13) kept pace with the teams it's chasing. Calgary beat Vancouver, so the Wild remains two points back of eighth place in the Western Conference. Winnipeg beat Detroit, so the Wild stays five points back of the seventh-place Jets with three games in hand as it heads west Sunday for a three-game trip that includes stops in Vancouver and Calgary.

"We've been climbing back in it and we've gotten ourselves closer and there's still an awful lot of hockey left this year," coach Mike Yeo said.

The Hurricanes might be near the bottom of the Eastern Conference, but they're a hardworking, defensively-sound team that has played well the past six weeks. So Yeo wanted his Wild to be ready for a "low-scoring, tight-checking game."

"Got that one wrong," Yeo joked.

The Wild jumped to a 3-0 first-period lead when Vanek scored two of the easiest goals he ever has thanks to a couple of beautiful plays by linemates Mikael Granlund and Justin Fonatine. Schroeder then ripped a blocker-side shot past former Wild goalie Anton Khudobin just like Wild goalie coach Bob Mason told him to do.

The Wild gave up a late first-period goal, but Prosser gave the Wild its three-goal lead back when his backdoor pass deflected off defenseman Justin Faulk.

"Usually you won't find me down there too often," said Prosser, a defensive defenseman wearing a Dora the Explorer sticker on his shirt placed there by 11-month-old daughter, Willa, after the game. "I saw an opportunity coming off the bench. Perfect sauce pass [by Vanek]. I didn't have to move my stick."

But the game turned when veteran referee Dan O'Halloran made a controversial call. He nailed Andrej Sekera for cross-checking Mikko Koivu but things evened out when O'Halloran called Koivu for embellishing for launching himself into the boards. What was peculiar is O'Halloran allowed a delayed penalty for 15 seconds with goalie Devan Dubnyk on the bench for seven seconds as if it was going to be a Wild power play.

Instead, it was a 4-on-4. Jeff Skinner scored to make it 4-2, then 90 seconds later Elias Lindholm deflected Faulk's shot through traffic to make it 4-3.

However in the third, Haula completed the Gophers hat trick by giving the Wild a two-goal cushion when Kyle Brodziak's centering feed deflected in off his braking right skate. Haula's goal eased "a little tension," he said. Zach Parise later added an empty-netter as the Wild won its fifth consecutive game at home.

The Wild survived a train wreck of a second period in which the Hurricanes climbed back in because the Wild continually lost battles, races and coughed up pucks.

In hindsight though, Yeo said, "It's probably better for us going out on the road that we had to play a meaningful third period or at least play a third period where we had to be sharper in a lot of areas in terms of how we played with the puck, structure-wise. If you carry some bad habits on the road, it's going to be tougher to get it back."

With Jason Zucker hurt, Yeo praised the job Fontaine (two assists) did moving up to the second line with Granlund (two assists, plus-3) and Vanek (three points). It was Vanek's first two-goal game with the Wild and second three-point game.

"When guys are down and injured, we need him scoring goals and making plays, and that's definitely what he's doing," Prosser said.