EDMONTON, ALBERTA – A three-week hiatus is so peculiar in the middle of the season, it was hard to know what to expect Thursday night from the Wild.
Sure, the playoff contenders were facing the Western Conference's perennial basement dwellers, the Edmonton Oilers. But after 21 days of no games and a mini-training camp that didn't include four jet-lagged Olympians, it wouldn't have been shocking if the Wild couldn't rediscover its game instantly.
That wasn't the case, though, in a scot-free 3-0 win at Rexall Place.
"You're a little bit unsure because you haven't played in like forever it seems," said Darcy Kuemper, who showed no signs of rust with a 21-save shutout, the second of his career. "But everyone was real focused and made sure there were no lulls. Just a solid team game."
Mikael Granlund, fresh off a terrific Olympic tournament for Finland, scored two minutes into the game and Stephane Veilleux and Dany Heatley added the other goals as the Wild won for the 13th time in the past 15 visits to Edmonton.
More importantly, the Wild stretched its lead on the first of two wild-card spots to five points.
Coach Mike Yeo originally planned to start Niklas Backstrom and come back with Kuemper on Friday against Vancouver, a team the Wild is six points ahead of in the standings.
The coaches debated, but "bottom line," Yeo said Thursday morning, "is we just want to get off to a good start and we want to see if Kuemps can pick up where he left off."