Video session teaches a primer in passing, playmaking

The reel was rife with turnovers, errant passes that landed in teammates' skates and no puck support.

Or, as Marcus Foligno called it, "bonehead plays."

Before returning to action Sunday, that's what the Wild watched — a series of its own mistakes.

"It's humbling and embarrassing, too," Foligno continued, "because you're looking at tape-to-tape passes and you're in the NHL."

But the video session paid off, with a slick passing sequence up ice leading to the decisive tally in a 4-3 rally over the Canadiens on Sunday at Xcel Energy Center that improved the Wild to 2-6.

"We came out clean, and that is something we haven't been doing a lot of this season and that's why we haven't been getting a lot of rush chances," Zach Parise said. "A lot of times it's gotta start from your own end with a couple of good plays out of your zone, and that's how that one started."

Every Wild skater had a hand in the play.

After Matt Dumba passed off to Jonas Brodin, who sent the puck to Mikko Koivu, the captain led a smooth exit of the defensive zone before feeding Jason Zucker just inside the offensive blue line.

He wove the puck through traffic to connect with Parise, who redirected the puck in as he was crashing the net with 7 minutes, 6 seconds remaining to break a 3-3 tie.

"That was probably the hardest pass that I've ever made, so that was very impressive by Zach," Zucker said.

Studying the negatives isn't necessarily easy to do, but Parise said it helped explain the Wild's frustration.

And by focusing on what's been going wrong, the Wild was able to do plenty right offensively in its next opportunity.

"Our passing has been way off, and then you look slow," Parise said. "You never have the puck. You chase the puck all game. I thought tonight we made shorter passes, crisper, and we got off the ice way better."

Center Gabriel Dumont made a seamless-looking transition into the Wild lineup against his former team, playing 11:51, recording one shot and laying out three hits.

Dumont, who was drafted by Montreal and logged 18 of his 88 NHL games with the Canadiens, was recalled from the American Hockey League on Saturday with forwards Mats Zuccarello, Joel Eriksson Ek and Victor Rask sidelined because of lower-body injuries.

"The number one thing for a coach is to be able to trust the people you put on the ice," coach Bruce Boudreau said. "The last half of the second period I had a lot of faith in him. So when we went down to three lines, he was on it."

Before Foligno tied it at 2 late in the second period, Eric Staal nearly scored his first of the season.

His shot at an empty net behind goalie Keith Kinkaid got a piece of a Canadiens stick and flew through the crease, a play emblematic of how tough it's been for Staal to generate offense.

But the veteran center fed Foligno later in the shift for his second assist.

"You've got to give him credit," Foligno said. "He's been mentally tough throughout this process from the start of the season, and he got rewarded tonight a little bit. His work ethic is there, and he made a great play just kind of feathering it in and it took a nice bounce to me back door."

The Wild's sellout streak ended Sunday at 230 consecutive regular-season games with an announced attendance of 17,344.

Xcel Energy Center's capacity for Wild games is 17,954.

This was the first regular-season game the Wild hasn't sold out since Dec.2, 2013, vs. Philadelphia.