EDMONTON – Charlie Coyle’s goal late in the third period stood up as the winner as the Minnesota Wild snapped a two-game losing skid with a 2-1 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday. Nino Niederreiter also scored for the Wild (21-20-6), who have only three wins to show from their last 11 games.
Boyd Gordon responded for the Oilers (12-27-9), who saw a rare two-game winning streak come to an end. Edmonton dropped to 3-20-8 this season against fellow Western Conference opponents.
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Minnesota scored nine minutes into the first period as Edmonton’s Nail Yakupov completely lost control of a puck in front of his own net on a horrendous giveaway to Justin Fontaine, who quickly dished it to Niederreiter for a gift goal on Oilers starter Viktor Fasth.
It was Niederreiter’s first goal in 17 games and 15th of the season. Wild assistant captain Zach Parise took an errant puck in the mouth with just over seven minutes remaining in the opening period and left the game to get some work done. He returned to start the second.
Minnesota had 10 shots in the first 20 minutes, while Edmonton responded with five on Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk.
Edmonton’s best chance in the first half of the game came midway through the second when Justin Schultz had a partial breakaway and got Dubnyk to go down on the play before the Wild goalie made an impressive glove save to deflect the puck over the net.
The Oilers tied the game 1-1 with 2:44 left in the second period as Gordon’s backhand wraparound from behind the net hit the skate of Minnesota’s Kyle Brodziak in front and deflected into the net. Edmonton came close to taking the lead early in the third as Dubnyk gave the puck away to Jordan Eberle, but Wild defender Ryan Suter kept it out and Minnesota eventually cleared it after a brief scramble in front of the net.
The Oilers missed another opportunity just past the midmark as Yakupov made a perfect pass on a two-on-one, but Teddy Purcell shot the puck wide of the Wild net.
Minnesota went up 2-1 with 4:23 left in the third as Eberle coughed up the puck on a drop pass, sending Coyle in on a breakaway.
Coyle waited for Fasth to commit, then tucked the puck behind him on his way behind the net. It was Coyle’s fifth goal of the season.
Edmonton had a power play for the final 1:22 of the game and pulled Fasth for the sixth attacker, but were unable to get the equalizer.
Both teams return to the ice on Thursday as the Wild travel to Calgary to face the Flames and the Oilers remain home to take on the Buffalo Sabres in a match-up between the two teams at the bottom of the NHL standings.
Notes: It was the first of three meetings between the two teams this season. Minnesota was 2-0-1 against the Oilers last season and came into the game having won eight of their last nine visits to Edmonton… Oilers forward Taylor Hall sat out the game after taking a shot to the leg in practice on Monday… Minnesota goalie Devan Dubnyk made his first start against his former Oilers team since a trade brought him to the Wild from the Arizona Coyotes on Jan. 14 for a third-round pick in the 2015 NHL Draft. Dubnyk made three appearances against Edmonton with the Coyotes earlier this season, going 3-0-0 with a 0.97 goals-against average… Minnesota centre Mikael Granlund was back in the lineup after missing 13 games following wrist surgery from an injury sustained in a game on Dec. 27… Wild goaltender Darcy Kuemper was assigned to Iowa of the American Hockey League for a conditioning stint on Monday. Minnesota also recalled defenceman Stu Bickel from Iowa. However, he did not dress for the game… Out injured for the Wild was Keith Ballard (concussion), while Tyler Pitlick (lacerated spleen) was absent from the Oilers lineup.
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