Two trips to the box by the Wild's Nick Bonino didn't just put the Coyotes on the power play.
Another strong third period sends Wild over Coyotes, 4-1
The Wild won its seventh consecutive home game.
March 15, 2021 at 4:20AM
The Wild also had to defend both opportunities without one of its go-to penalty killers.
"My Lady Byng hopes are over," Bonino said, referring to the year-end award handed out to the NHL's most gentlemanly player.
But the Wild did an admirable job in Bonino's absence, and the veteran center rewarded the team for its diligence by scoring on a breakaway soon after he returned from his second penalty of the game — breaking open another mucky matchup with Arizona for a 4-1 victory Sunday afternoon at Xcel Energy Center to set the Wild up for a sweep of this five-game homestand when it concludes Tuesday against the Coyotes.
"That's how you draw it up," Bonino said. "You hope for the breakaway right out of the box, but we had to do a faceoff there. Sitting in the box, you don't want to be responsible for the penalty that the team gets scored on. Huge credit to the kill. I love being out there on the kill, but it was an awesome job."
The effort by both sides of special teams — the power play also scored once in three chances — helped push the Wild's win streak on home ice to seven games, the longest run in the NHL this season. With one more win in St. Paul, the team would tie the franchise record.
The second-place Wild is also just two points back of Vegas for the top spot in the West Division.
Aside from clutch special-teams play, the Wild was also boosted by Cam Talbot's 21 saves in net — steadiness that buoyed the team until it pulled away from the Coyotes in the third period.
"That game was hanging in the balance for a long time," coach Dean Evason said.
For the first time in six games, the Wild fell behind first on a five-hole shot by Phil Kessel 13 minutes, 27 seconds into the first period.
Not until 6:35 of the second did the Wild answer back, a shot by Victor Rask off a Mats Zuccarello rebound that counted as his sixth goal of the season; Rask had five goals in 43 games last season, and this is the most he's scored since he had 14 through 71 games in 2017-18.
Zuccarello's assist was his fifth during a three-game assist streak, and he has 18 points over his past 14 games. Their linemate, rookie Kirill Kaprizov, also helped set up the goal, raising his point streak to three games.
But like Friday in the series opener, which didn't end up a 4-0 win until late, the action was mostly a tight-checking battle.
"We always want to score and play offense, but it's tough sometimes in those games to keep your mind straight when seemingly two periods of the game nothing is really going," Nico Sturm said.
What changed the rhythm was Bonino's hooking penalty early in the third.
After the Wild PK held off the Coyotes for a third straight time, Kevin Fiala sent Bonino in on a breakaway that Bonino hustled past the glove of goalie Antti Raanta, who had 31 saves, at 6:03.
"I saw two guys were coming at me," Fiala said. "So, it was great that [Bonino] was right there and that he scored a beautiful goal."
Just 5:07 later, Fiala picked up his second point of the game when he finished off a give-and-go with Matt Dumba on the power play — the Wild's second power-play goal in the past three games, progress for the NHL's last-place unit.
Three of the Wild's seven power-play goals belong to Fiala, who said, "It's a huge goal to get the PP going."
With five seconds to go, the Wild was credited with a fourth goal when Joel Eriksson Ek was hauled down during an empty-net try to put an exclamation point on yet another victory manufactured in the third period.
"We have a belief in the room that we are going to win," Fiala said. "It doesn't matter what happens."
A 7-1 loss to Edmonton came with back-to-back home games just ahead and another injury in place, as the Wild placed defenseman Jake Middleton on IR and claimed veteran Travis Dermott off waivers.
