Yes, Wild coach Mike Yeo would like to see better team defense than what he's seen for a good bit of this young season. But, again in Friday's 5-4 victory over Chicago at Xcel Energy Center, the Wild did what it's already done a lot of this season:
Rallied when things didn't go their way. "What we have been absolutely outstanding at is, when there have been momentum shifts that have gone against us, we've collected ourselves and gotten back to our game," Yeo said.
Happened a couple times tonight. After Jason Zucker had scored on the game's first shift for the second time this week, the Wild allowed a short-handed goal , then a power-play goal to fall behind 2-1.
But the Wild scored the next three goals, including Jared Spurgeon's power-play goal early in the second to go up 4-2.
Then, after a couple defensive lapses allowed the Hawks to tie the game, the Wild got Nino Niederreiter's goal 32 seconds into the third period, then the Wild – and Devin Dubnyk – shut out Chicago the rest of the way.
The Wild is now 5-0 at home, the first time in franchise history Minnesota has opened a season with five straight home wins in regulation.
Here are some other stats/thoughts on the night:
--Once again the line of Mikko Koivu (three assists), Zucker and Niederreiter was very, very good. Koivu had three assists. Zucker had a goal and an assist. And Niederreiter – who led the team with five game winners last season -- got his first of this season tonight.