Oilers lose 5-2 to Wild, suffer third straight defeat

EDMONTON – Matt Dumba and Thomas Vanek each recorded a goal and an assist as the Minnesota Wild ran their winning streak under interim head coach John Torchetti to three games with a 5-2 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday.

Jason Pominville, Charlie Coyle and Mikael Granlund also scored for the Wild (26-22-10), who had lost 13 of their previous 14 games under former coach Mike Yeo.

Connor McDavid and Nail Yakupov replied for the Oilers (22-31-6), who have lost three straight and six of their last seven games.

Minnesota started the scoring 10-and-a-half minutes in on the power play as a big rebound came out to Pominville, who ripped a shot past Oilers goalie Cam Talbot.

It didn’t take Edmonton long to respond, however. The Oilers made it 1-1 just 28 seconds later when McDavid turned on the jets to take a Benoit Pouliot pass and calmly tuck it into the net past a cleanly beat Darcy Kuemper. It was McDavid’s 10th goal.

The Wild regained the lead with seven minutes left in the opening period as a Dumba pass attempt went in off the skate of defender Darnell Nurse on another power play.

The Oilers knotted it up again four minutes later as Yakupov picked off a pass and then picked the top corner on Kuemper.

Minnesota vaulted ahead once more five minutes into the second as Vanek took a feed on the doorstep and scored his 16th of the season.

The Wild made it 4-2 with four minutes left in the second as Granlund fished out a rebound in front of the net and sent it past Talbot.

Coyle got a late empty-netter.

The Oilers next play host to the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday. The Wild are off until Sunday, when they return home to play Chicago.

Notes: Minnesota won the only previous meeting between the two teams this season and now has a six-game winning streak in games played in Edmonton. … Missing from the Oilers lineup were Oscar Klefbom (lower body), Andrew Ference (hip), Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (hand), Eric Gryba (knee) and Zack Kassian (flu). With Gryba out for a month, the Oilers called up Nikita Nikitin from the AHL, but he was a healthy scratch. … Out for the Wild were Jonas Brodin (foot) and Marco Scandella (undisclosed).