The Wild beat the Blues 3-2 on Sunday to wrap up the longest road trip in franchise history with five wins in seven games, gaining 10 of a possible 14 points on a trip that looked like it could put the Wild in an early season hole.
Instead, Minnesota has 24 points this season – the most in franchise history through 17 games – and sits comfortably in second place in the Central Division. Nashville (26 points) and Tampa Bay (25 points) are the only teams in the NHL with more points than the Wild.
“It’s still November, but the further you can get above .500 because everybody goes through something whether it’s injuries, whether it’s a downward part of the schedule that makes it tough for you, it happens,” head coach Boudreau said Sunday.
“To get that little cushion is really important. It’s something we never had last year because we started out very mediocre, so we grinded and grinded. And the year before, we had a good cushion when we had a bad month of March and it worked out for us. That’s what you want to do.”
And now the Wild play six of the next seven games at Xcel Energy Center, where they’re 5-0-2 on the season.
MInnesota trailed St. Louis 1-0 after one period on Sunday, but Zach Parise and Joel Erikkson Ek scored 25 seconds apart early in the second period.
The Blues tied it 2-2 midway through the second and it remained tied until Mikael Granlund buried the go-ahead goal at the 7:43 mark of the third period.
