Wild wins fifth in a row by another Dubnyk shutout, still five points back of final playoff spot

It seems like the only team that can beat the Vancouver Canucks and Calgary Flames these days is the Wild.

Not true. But just seems that way.

The Flames have won eight of 11 with one of those losses being to Minnesota. The Canucks have lost more often of late, but they beat the heck out of the Penguins tonight to keep Minnesota from moving within three points of eighth.

So, despite winning five in a row, the Wild (7-1-1 in nine games since Devan Dubnyk's arrival), is still five points back of that second wildcard spot and has only gained two points on eighth during this winning streak. The Wild does have two games in hand on the now-eighth-place Flames for that bottom wildcard spot and is now six points behind slumping Winnipeg for that top wildcard spot.

The Wild during the win streak has moved from 12^th to 9^th, hopping over Colorado with tonight's 1-nil win over the Avs, and plays Vancouver (tied with Calgary with 61 points but in that playoff-lock top-3 position in the Pacific) and Winnipeg on Monday and Tuesday.

This is making for some kind of tense finish this season where every win if going to be huge and every loss is going to feel magnified.

Tonight, the Wild came out like it was shot out of a rocket, picking up off the momentum of the Chicago win and outshooting the Avs 17-1 at one point in the first period and 17-4 through 20. It out-attempted the Avs 33-6 in the first period, which gives you a good sense of the puck possession dominance in a one-sided period.

Dubnyk now has four shutouts in nine starts with the Wild and has allowed three goals in five games since the All-Star break. In nine starts, he is 7-1 (one no-decision in Detroit) with a 1.31 goals-against average and .948 save percentage. Per Elias, Dubnyk is the fastest to post four shutouts with a team among goalies who debut in the NHL expansion era (1967-68 or later).

The Wild has outscored the Avalanche 9-0 in three games this season. Tonight, it rode Charlie Coyle's first-period goal all the way to the finish line. He deflected Marco Scandella's point shot after a terrific shift by Nino Niederreiter, Coyle, Jordan Schroeder, Scandella and Jared Spurgeon.

The shift resembled most shifts by the Wild all period.

"First period everybody was going. It was just one after another," coach Mike Yeo said.

Four of Coyle's seven goals are game-winners, tying Scandella for first on the team. I'm finally doing my big personality profile on Scandella for Monday's paper, by the way. It should be a pretty fun read to give you a sense of who this guy is off the ice.

Yeo felt that "things might have almost went a little bit too well for us [in the first period]. You have a period like that and you only have a one-goal lead, it's almost a win for them. They're energized and we came out with not the same level of the intensity."

He just felt the Wild got away from the way it was playing as the Avs tightened up.

Yeo liked where Coyle scored his goal from and he said he still hammering away at the team to get better net-front presence on opposing goalies.

"It's an area of our game that we're stressing and we're getting close," Yeo said.

It was a very joyous locker room after and Yeo said, "We have to be careful that we don't sit around and think about how good we are right now. Our next game is going to be tougher. Confidence is a great thing. We are feeling confident, but sometimes that can lead to some habits creeping in or forgetting some of the things that you need to do to be successful. We have to make sure that every win that we take, we brush it off and get ready for the next game."