Wild, as usual, bounces back with win over St. Louis to gain 5-point playoff cushion

The Wild continues to respond impressively to losses.

Besides the fact it hasn't lost by more than a goal since Jan. 19, the Wild hasn't lost consecutive games since Jan. 19-20 or consecutive games in regulation since Jan. 11 and 13. That was the pre-Devan Dubnyk, who today made 26 saves in a 6-3 win over the St. Louis Blues.

Blues coach Ken Hitchcock said the Wild looked nervous at the start. Wild coach Mike Yeo said the Wild looked sleepy at the start, but Dubnyk helped the Wild settle in by making a huge save early 1-on-1 with offensive stud Vladimir Tarasenko, who scored a goal and assist on eight shots.

Hitch's former player, Chris Stewart, got the Wild going. With the Blues playing a tad too much in the Wild end, Stewart made something out of nothing by poking Jaden Schwartz's pass from behind the net up top to Alex Pietrangelo out of the zone and into open space.

Stewart, a giant man, then found a burst of speed I remember him having in past years with Colorado but hadn't seen yet with Minnesota. He turned on the jets, created separation and made a shrewd move to open up Brian Elliott's five-hole for a 1-0 lead.

Five minutes later, Justin Fontaine made a neat play to hold the blue, wristed a shot on net and the puck tipped Zbynek Michalek's stick, then hit Thomas Vanek's arm, popped in the air and in.

That was one of the "goofy deflections," as Hitchcock called them, that did in the Blues. In the second, Zach Parise and Jonas Brodin scored 26 seconds apart to end Elliott's night.

The only negative mark for the game was the fact the Wild's penalty kill amazingly gave up two power-play goals in a game for the second time this season. That's fairly remarkable right there.

Two wins against the Blues seven days apart. Not too shabby if the Wild happens to face them in the playoffs.

"The postseason is so different," Parise said. "We've got a long ways to go. We've got to worry about just getting there. We're playing well and it was a big win for us against these guys. That's always a tough opponent.

"You look at the standings, there's not a lot of room. Regardless of who we're playing, we need to win. We know how tough these guys are to play against. We don't have room right now to have games off."

The Kings lost today, so Wild's five up on a playoff spot now.

Couple interesting stats:

Wild now has 153 5-on-5 goals. That's third in the NHL behind the Lightning and Islanders.

The Wild has outscored its opponents 93-52 for a plus-41 differential in the past 30 games under Dubnyk. In the FOURTEEN games before, the Wild was outscored 58-32.

Vanek extended his point streak to seven games, which is first on the team this year and his longest since a 10-game one last year. I wrote a good amount him in the gamer and notebook, and also Stewart.

Brodin scored a goal and assist, had his first career winning goal and was plus-3. Ryan Suter (plus-3) and Charlie Coyle each had two assists, Parise's goal was his team-leading 28^th and Fontaine registered his second career three-point game.

Matt Dumba led the Wild in ice time by a second over Suter (22:45).

The Wild, 12-1-2 under Dubnyk on the road, now plays back-to-back games at Toronto and the Islanders, so the franchise-record eight-game road winning streak will be on the line.

The Wild doesn't practice Sunday (travel day only) so I'll be doing a Brodin story for Monday's paper. The kid's just an incredible player and has had a huge bounceback year from last season. I've also got something else cooking in Toronto that should make for a cool story down the road.

Also, check out my Sunday Insider on Dubnyk talking about his contract "situation" on startribune.com/wild.