Wild postgame: Plenty of unsung heroes as road trip ends.

The Wild played 20 minutes of dump and change hockey, sending in one forechecker most of the time and relied on Devan Dubnyk to snag it two points Wednesday night.

Duby did, stopped 17 of 17 Toronto shots in the third period while the Wild only registered three during a 3-2 win.

Not a single soul was apologizing how the Wild gutted this one out tonight, not after a five-game, 12-day trek that started TWO SATURDAYS AGO in St. Louis and continued to four cities across the great white north.

(quick update: Practice canceled Thursday morning, but the team did send winger Teemu Pulkkinen back to Iowa.)

Decent 2-1-2 trip, what's a shame is the Wild had a two-goal lead in Vancouver only to lose in regulation (after rallying from a two-goal deficit), had a third-period lead in St. Louis before losing in a shootout and had a first-period lead in Calgary before losing in a shootout (although it rallied to get to overtime).

In other words, the trip could have been much better. But, it's felt like this team has been on the road all season and it has managed points in seven of its past eight games (4-1-3) as it returns to Minnesota to open a three-game homestand Friday against Connor McDavid and the Oilers.

Dubnyk, making his 300th start, made 35 saves for his 70th win in 126 games with the Wild. Jason Zucker, Chris Stewart and Eric Staal scored, Staal's goal becoming his 50th game-winner to snap a 12-game goal drought. It was his 799th career point, too.

Also, Kurtis Gabriel, who grew up in Newmarket, registered his first career point on the Stewart goal with his mom, brother, step-dad, best friend and a former coach in the stands.

The Wild improved to 6-7-4 in one-goal games.

Ryan Suter was plus-3 and had five hits and three blocked shots. He now is plus-18 since Oct. 25, which is tied for first in the NHL in that span with the Rangers' Michael Grabner. In his past 19 games, Suter has had one minus game.

Big blocked shots late by Charlie Coyle and Nate Prosser, which got the bench rocking and rolling in the waning seconds. Prosser has been playing outstanding with Christian Folin sidelined to injury.

Some quotes

On if the way it held on was the product of just wanting to get two points out of a long road trip, he said, "When we went in, there was not a lot of celebrating or anything. They were just tired from being on the road, and had to gut it out, and when you get two blocks in the last 20 seconds and everybody on the bench stood up, you could tell they wanted to win pretty bad."

On Scott Stevens putting Prosser on the ice in the final seconds: "He must have had a gut feeling that he was going to get the job done."

On Stewart's breakaway goal in his third career trip to his hometown of Toronto: "That was pretty cool. I'm sure his family and friends in Scarborough were all watching and pretty happy for him. He almost had two."

On Dubnyk and if he should be getting Vezina talk: "If he was in Toronto, there would be no Carey Price … I'm just saying media-wise. I mean, he hasn't allowed more than three goals in any game he's played this year. He's held us in all the time. … To answer your question, yes, he would be."

On Kurtis Gabriel: "He's making the team bigger. He gets his first point tonight, gets into a fight, does a good job, cheers on the bench. That's pretty good stuff, and he's making Stewy play better, too."

Staal on hanging on: "It's been a long grind. I mean, this is a long trip. We gutted it out. I like that we did. We've got a veteran team, we've got guys that understand what it's going to take certain night, and tonight was a certain night where we had to gut it out. Kudos to a lot of guys who stepped up in big spots to make plays defensively. It's a big win to go home feeling good and hopefully start a good stretch at home."

Dubnyk on hanging on: "On the road sometimes that's the way the game is going to go. We got some big plays all the way through the third period. We worked until the end. It's been a long road trip. So it's nice to see it pay off at the end."

Dubnyk on playing so well on Canadian trek: "I love playing in Canada. Obviously growing up playing hockey in Western Canada I always dreamed about playing in the NHL. To get to come back and visit these rinks and play against these teams that I watched as a kid it's always special. It doesn't matter how many times I do it."

Stewart on scoring in Toronto: "I've been thinking about that one my whole life. There was a lot of family in the building and I grew up a Maple Leafs fan. It's definitely nice to get that one off the bucket list."

Stewart on winning on the road trip: "It meant a lot. We started off a little slow here on the road trip. ... We capped it off with two big wins here and we're going to go home and hopefully carry it over onto home ice."

Stewart on Dubnyk: "You can definitely feel it. He gives us a chance to win every night. We are lucky to have him here."

Gabriel:

On the assist: "Seeing Stewy go up the ice and watching him tuck that between his legs, like that was an unreal goal. That's what I'll remember. … The way it was going, I thought there was going to be a rebound next for a goal or something because all my buddies said I'd get a Gordie Howe hat trick.:

On fighting Roman Polak in defense of Stewart: "He's my big brother, and sometimes little brother has to stick up for big brother. He said I beat him to it, so obviously he was going to go after him. I love playing with him. He's made me really comfortable, even off the ice, away from the rink, he's been great."

Gabriel got four stitches on his finger from the fight. Boudreau loves him and he gives the Wild a dimension it doesn't have and he handles the puck real well. He had a solid game in Calgary and was great tonight.