Dubnyk makes 15 saves, Wild beat road-weary Jets

Published 8:53 am Friday, November 25, 2016

Devan Dubnyk has been one of the best goalies in the NHL lately. Good thing for the Minnesota Wild, too, because they haven’t provided him with much offense.

Dubnyk got a little more help Wednesday night as the Wild earned a 3-1 victory over the road-weary Winnipeg Jets.

Mikko Koivu, Jonas Brodin and Zach Parise scored for Minnesota, which has totaled eight goals while going 2-2-1 in the last five games. It was only the second time in 10 games that Minnesota scored at least three.

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“We were able to get enough,” said Parise, whose empty-net goal secured the win. “It’s kind of been the same story: Devan played really well.”

Dubnyk made 15 saves and has allowed only 13 goals in his last 11 games since Oct. 25, stopping 319 of 332 shots for a 1.20 goals-against average and .961 save percentage. Among goalies to play at least eight games this season, he leads the league with a 1.55 goals-against average, .948 save percentage and four shutouts.

Yet he has just eight wins in 15 starts.

“He’s been great,” Brodin said. “We feel confident playing in front of him. He’s really good right now.”

Dubnyk credits his defense.

“We were great in our end all night. That is what we’ve been doing,” he said.

Blake Wheeler scored for Winnipeg, which is 0-4 on a five-game road trip — its longest of 2016-17. The Jets have been outscored 15-5 during their worst slide of the season.

“I thought we played with the puck in their zone quite a bit, created some really good looks that their goalie made some big saves on,” Wheeler said. “The bounces didn’t go our way.”

Koivu scored his first goal in 11 games with 58.7 seconds left in the second period for a 1-0 lead.

Behind the net, Jason Zucker won a battle with Josh Morrissey and passed to Koivu alone in front. A wrist shot by the Wild captain beat Connor Hellebuyck.

Wheeler thought he tied the game midway through the third when a shot from Toby Enstrom went off his skate and into the net. But a video review showed Winnipeg was offside entering the zone.