Postgame: Wild scores five again, extends road point streak

Not even the All-Star break or giving its All-Star goalie a game off could interrupt the Wild's mojo.

Not even the Oilers' move from Rexall Place to Rogers Place could interrupt the Wild having its way with the Oilers in Edmonton.

The Wild, a NHL-best 16-5-5 on the road, swept the season series with the Oil, 3-0, with a 5-2 pounding Tuesday night for an eighth consecutive victory in Edmonton – starting with the Dec. 4 overtime win that triggered this 22-3-1 sprint.

The Wild followed a 12-1-1 December with a 10-2-1 January.

Kris Russell was minus-4, four others were minus-3, including young star Leon Draisaitl and No. 1 defenseman Andrej Sekera.

The Wild's 110 points against Edmonton are its most against any franchise and its 24 wins in Edmonton and 50 wins overall are the most against any franchise. The Wild improved to 13-3-1 in its past 17 meetings against the Oilers and 13-1 in its past 14 visits to Edmonton.

The Oilers had points in eight straight games and were tied for first in the Pacific, so they're no slouch. They also boast the NHL's leading scorer in Connor McDavid, who was held without a point this season against the Wild.

The Wild got three goals from fourth-liners, although the primary assist on two of them went to Mikael Granlund and Jason Zucker.

Tyler Graovac, who scored the winning goal in a 5-1 win over the Blues before the break, notched his first career 2-goal game and first career goal streak. Chris Stewart scored the fifth goal coming out of the box and using Zucker as a decoy (more on that below).

Zach Parise snapped a 10-game goal drought with the winning goal and Jason Zucker had a goal, assist and was plus-3 to tie Ryan Suter for the lead league with a plus-30.

Granlund was outstanding again. Not long after the Oilers cut the deficit to 3-1, Granlund batted an Oilers outlet out of the air for a turnover. In an instant, he executed a give and go with Graovac for the big goal and three-goal lead again. That assist for Granlund gave him a 10-game point streak, which tied Erik Haula and Andrew Brunette's team record.

The Wild now is 12-0-2 in its past 14 games on the road (no regulation road losses since Nov. 29). That ties Ottawa for longest road point streak in the NHL since Feb. 10-April 11, 2015.

The Wild leads the West with 163 goals and has scored four or more goals in 21 of 49 games this season, something it accomplished 20 times in 82 games last year.

It has averaged 4.1 goals per game (90 goals) in the past 22 games overall.

Zucker said, "We wanted to make sure that we started strong, got off on the right foot and then you try to carry this into Calgary and throughout the rest of the road trip."

On the fifth goal I mentioned, Kuemper took a delay of game penalty up 4-2 in the third. Stewart served the penalty. Zucker hit Stewart coming out of the box for what could have been a breakaway if Stewart moved his feet.

But he pulled up inside the blue line and waited for Zucker to sprint into the play. Instead of forcing a pass, Stewart used Zucker as a decoy and whipped it home for his 11th goal.

So he knew he wouldn't get a pass from Stewart? Zucker said, laughing, "Not a chance."

Stewart said, "I felt bad. I kind of slowed up and let him get all the way up in the play and just kind of looked him off there."

Stewart tried to keep a straight face, but Zucker was hysterical lighting, so, "he made me laugh, so I couldn't hold it in."

Kuemper was happy about his first career point on the Stewart goal, but joked, "It would have been nicer if I passed one up for a breakaway or something. I just kind of got a lucky touch on it."

Solid effort by Kuemper. Coach Bruce Boudreau said he could tell early Kuemper was dialed in because he was swallowing pucks, controlling rebounds and settling things down when the Wild needed things settled down.

Asked if he needed this type of game personally because of some rocky outings lately, Kuemper said, "It's been kind of funny because I've felt good, especially lately. But sometimes the result hasn't been there. It was nice to feel good in there and keep the score down. Just got to keep working. The guys, they made it pretty easy."

Parise's goal was vintage Parise. Jason Pominville set him up, then Parise scored on his own rebound. He changed the tape on his blade to white. "The black wasn't working, so I figured I'd try something different."

Great game again by his line. Parise, Pominville and Haula combined for 11 shots after having 23 the previous two games. Pominville had a goal disallowing in the final minutes that Parise still doesn't get.

First it was ruled a good goal by the refs. The refs conferenced and changed their call to no goal for goalie interference. Boudreau was going to challenge that there was no goalie interference, but before he could do that, the NHL Situation Room had to first make sure it was a good goal in the first place.

They ruled that Pominville batted the puck in. So poor Pominville, who hit the post in this game on an awesome Parise setup, had his same goal overturned twice by two different rules.

On McDavid not having a point against the Wild this season, Boudreau said, "It's been fortunate for us that he hasn't had his best games against us, but at one point one game he's going to break out, you know that."

He was also happy for Parise because he has had "chances after chances not going in."

That's it for me. Very early flight to Calgary. Talk to ya in the morning.