Furious rally ignites Wild over Anaheim

The offensive juggernauts erupted again.

The defensive, trap-it-up identity that defined the Wild since its inception has vanished from its DNA this season as the Western Conference-leading team keeps filling opposing nets with relentlessness.

It's for that reason Wild players never feel they're out of a game. They proved that yet again Saturday night when the Wild stunned the Anaheim Ducks with three goals in less than two minutes late in the third period to complete another come-from-behind victory, this time 5-3, for a perfect Hockey Day Minnesota grand finale.

"It was loud, the crowd was into it, it was a lot of fun," said defenseman Ryan Suter, who assisted on Erik Haula's tying goal, scored the eventual winning goal and assisted on the last goal of the rally. "It was a good ending to a great day for Minnesota."

For the third time in nine January games, the Wild — 13-0-2 in its past 15 games against the West and 7-1-1 since its 12-game winning streak ended — rallied from a two-goal deficit to win. The comebacks started in San Jose on Jan. 5 when the Wild rallied from two-goal deficits twice in the third period.

The Wild did the deed again last weekend in Chicago.

But on Saturday, the Wild won its 30th game of the season against a Ducks team that was 17-0-1 when leading after two periods.

With the Wild looking, as coach Bruce Boudreau said "pretty dead," Jason Zucker sparked the comeback in the second period. Minnesota trailed 3-1 when Sami Vatanen fanned on a puck between the circles and gift-wrapped a breakaway that Zucker converted.

"I don't remember the last time I got a fortunate bounce like that," Zucker said.

From there, Devan Dubnyk, who has allowed 26 goals in his past nine starts, said no more. The turning point came when he denied Corey Perry on a breakaway.

"After that third goal it was like he buckled down," Boudreau said. "You could almost see a different demeanor in the way he was playing in the net."

The Wild entered the third period trailing for only the eighth time this season, but Haula tied the score on a slot redirection of Suter's slap pass with 6:21 left. Then, after the Ducks yielded an almost unfeasible 5-on-2, Suter chased down Nino Niederreiter's deflected shot behind the net and banked the winner in off Jonathan Bernier, who entered the game in the first period for an injured John Gibson.

Then, only 1:23 after that, Zucker buried his 14th goal and fifth in six games after Mikael Granlund turned a 2-on-1 into a Zucker breakaway with a perfect saucer pass.

"That's Granny. That's why I gave him the puck right away," Zucker said.

The Wild leads the West with 150 goals and 3.33 goals per game. It has scored four or more goals 19 times in 45 games (42.2 percent). It did that only 20 times last season.

In 18 games since Dec. 13, the Wild is averaging 4.17 goals per game to lead the NHL and is a league-best 19-2-1 since Dec. 4.

"It is fun. When we're playing good, we know we're going to score goals," Suter said.

The Wild improved to 2-1 on a homestand that ends Sunday against the Nashville Predators.

Most impressive about Saturday's victory is that the Ducks came to battle. They smothered the Wild after Haula scored 2:35 into the game and rallied for a 2-1, then 3-1 lead early in the second.

"We said in between periods, 'This isn't our game, our game is skating. We can't hit with them, they're bigger than us. So let's start skating,' " Boudreau said. "And then between the second and third, we just said, 'Let's keep shooting and eventually they're going to go in.'

"That's what happened."

Added Zucker, "I think we were a little too tentative to start. I think we were waiting for the hit and making plays based on hits, and once we started playing them and using our speed and just playing the game, we were better off."