Wild hangs on for 3-2 victory over winless Columbus

When you're facing a team that fired its coach the day before and arrived winless for the season, you don't want to be the first in the NHL to serve up a victory.

The Wild, beginning a stretch of seven out of nine games at home, gave its fans a scare during a downright drowsy display in the first period Thursday night. But the Wild regrouped between periods and finally showed some gusto in the second to become the latest team to hand the now 0-8 Columbus Blue Jackets a defeat.

In a microcosm of its albeit brief season, the Wild put forth an uneven performance against the desperate Jackets but was just good enough to spoil John Tortorella's coaching debut with a 3-2 victory.

"We talked so much about how hard they were going to come out and how hard they were going to play, I don't know if we psyched ourselves out or what, but it was a pretty ugly start for us," said Zach Parise, whose game-opening goal — his league-leading sixth — was followed by two Blue Jackets goals by the end of the first.

But Nino Niederreiter and Thomas Vanek sparked a second-period rally and Devan Dubnyk, in need of a solid showing after a spotty start to this season, made 27 saves as the 4-1-1 Wild played at Xcel Energy Center for only the second time this season and first time in 12 days.

"Lulls in the game, I know this group will eventually come around and play the way we need to play, and we showed that [Thursday]," said Dubnyk, who is 4-1 with a 2.81 goals-against average and .896 save percentage.

Sergei Bobrovsky, the 2013 Vezina Trophy winner who is off to a shocking 0-6 start, sealed Todd Richards' fate with a 5.07 goals-against average. Tortorella is looking for better goaltending, but the man they call "BOB" had no idea where he served up Jared Spurgeon's rebound early in the second.

Niederreiter did, found the puck, spun and fired it underneath Bobrovsky to tie the score at 2-2, Niederreiter's third goal of the season.

After Charlie Coyle and Christian Folin drew two minors on one forecheck, Jason Zucker took an intentionally wide slap pass and Vanek, with his back to the net and well wide of the crease, sliced a perfect redirection inside the post for his third goal this season and 119th career power-play goal.

"Fantastic tip," Parise said. "That was a really nice goal-scorer's goal."

The Wild's power play ranks fourth in the NHL (27.8 percent), but it was the first goal by the second unit.

"I've been waiting for those guys," coach Mike Yeo said.

Dubnyk had to be good in the third period, when the Blue Jackets pushed hard and the Wild returned to sloppy play. But his best save came late in the second when he used every bit of his 6-6 frame to make a desperation right-pad save to rob Alexander Wennberg and preserve the one-goal lead.

"Once you go for the poke check, all you can do is make yourself long," Dubnyk said.

The Wild played one of its worst periods of the season in the first. The Wild was unclean getting out of its own zone, slow and deliberate in everything it did, turned pucks over and took careless penalties. All this led to little sustained offensive-zone time.

"For us to come out the way we did and come out with a win is a good thing for us," said Ryan Suter, who combined for three assists with his partner, Spurgeon. "It didn't look pretty in the first."

What changed in the second?

"We made tape-to-tape passes, we moved our feet a little bit, really no secret to it," Parise said, sarcastically. "We actually competed for the puck in the corner when it was 50-50. Once we started to do that, we spent way more time in their zone."