Dubnyk perfect as Wild blank Blackhawks
Charlie Coyle scored two goals, Devan Dubnyk stopped all 44 shots he faced, and the Minnesota Wild cruised to a 3-0 win over the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday night at Xcel Energy Center.
Mikko Koivu also scored as Minnesota won for the eighth time in the past 12 games.
Chicago's winless streak reached five games. The Blackhawks were shut out for the fifth time this season.
Dubnyk stopped 17 shots in the first period, 12 shots in the second and 15 shots in the third to earn his fourth shutout of the season and the 28th of his career. He improved to 13-8-0 in his career against Chicago.
Blackhawks goaltender Jeff Glass allowed three goals on 19 shots to drop to 3-5-3.
Minnesota grabbed a 1-0 advantage 1:58 after the opening faceoff. Coyle handled the puck behind the net and banked a shot off Glass and across the goal line.
Less than five minutes later, Minnesota scored on the power play to make it 2-0. Matt Dumba stepped into a slap shot from the top of the right circle, and Koivu redirected the puck in front of the crease for his eighth goal of the season.
Coyle struck again to increase Minnesota's lead to 3-0 early in the second period. He raced into the offensive zone on a two-on-one break with Zach Parise. Coyle elected to keep the puck instead of passing to Parise, and he ripped a wrist shot from the left circle for his eighth goal of the season and his fourth in the past six games.
Chicago coach Joel Quenneville pulled Glass for an extra attacker with more than three minutes to go in the third period. Dubnyk withstood a flurry of activity from the desperate Blackhawks to preserve the shutout.
Blackhawks defenseman Carl Dahlstrom made his NHL debut one day after he was recalled from Rockford of the AHL. The 23-year-old from Stockholm, Sweden, did not register a point in 16:48 of ice time.
The game marked the fifth and final meeting of the regular season between the teams. The Wild won the season series 3-2.
--Field Level Media
