ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) Zach Parise scored twice and Devan Dubnyk made 22 saves to blank his original team, pushing the Minnesota Wild to the brink of the playoffs with a 3-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Monday night.
Playing for the first time in nearly three years without stalwart defenseman Ryan Suter, the Wild wrapped up their home schedule with a postseason-caliber performance punctuated by a staggering 21-3 shots advantage in the third period. Joel Eriksson Ek added an empty-net goal as the Wild finished 27-6-8 at Xcel Energy Center, currently the second-best home record in the NHL.
Cam Talbot made 37 saves for the Oilers, who lost their fifth straight game and ensured a sub-80-point finish for the eighth time in the nine years.
The Wild reached 98 points to match the fourth-most in franchise history and put themselves in position to clinch a postseason berth, depending on the outcome of the Colorado-Los Angeles game later. One more loss by the Avalanche in regulation would send the Wild to the playoffs for the sixth straight year, though there were several other paths to the postseason remaining over the final five days.
The Wild are 24-9-7 with Parise in the lineup. He missed the first 39 games of the season recovering from back surgery.
Edmonton won the first two meetings with Minnesota this season, with Connor McDavid registering two goals and two assists, but after the breakthrough in 2016-17 the Oilers have tumbled back down the Western Conference standings. They’re 17-23-4 since the Christmas break.
The Wild scored the first goal for the first time in seven games, when Parise snagged a bouncing puck at his own blue line that Oilers defenseman Adam Larsson was struggling to control with his skates and broke loose on an unabated path to the net. He snapped a shot though Talbot’s pads for the lead just 3:33 into the contest.
Dubnyk went to work on his fifth shutout of the season, making some difficult saves including a denial of NHL points leader McDavid’s attempt with his right leg. Then Parise provided some padding when he swooped into position to knock in a rebound of Jonas Brodin’s attempt before the midpoint of the second period.
Making the 400th start of his NHL career against the club that drafted him in the first round in 2004, Dubnyk recorded his 133rd win for the Wild since they acquired him in a trade on Jan. 14, 2015. No goalie in the league has played in more games (230) or pitched more shutouts (20) since then.
The young defense in front of Dubnyk deserved credit, too, missing the indefatigable Suter. As the NHL’s ice time leader since 2012 sat out to snap his consecutive regular season games played streak at 242, Carson Soucy made his debut on the blue line next to Nate Prosser after an emergency recall from the AHL. Brodin and Matt Dumba formed an under-25 first pair, and rookie Nick Seeler played on the second unit with Ryan Murphy.
NOTES: Parise has at least one point in seven straight games and 12 goals over his last 19 games, the third-most in the league since March 1. … With Suter’s absence, center Eric Staal became the Wild’s new ironman by playing in his 161st consecutive contest. He has not missed a game since joining the team prior to last season.
UP NEXT
Oilers: Host Vegas on Thursday.
Wild: Play at Anaheim on Wednesday.
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