Wild tops Edmonton in a shootout after many chances to win in overtime

Bruce Boudreau joked Friday morning that it took "a lot of praying" to keep the NHL's teenage leading scorer, Connor McDavid, off the score sheet Sunday night.

Five nights later, the Wild must have found another house of worship.

Not only did the Edmonton Oilers star go without a point for a second straight meeting, his turnover led to Jason Zucker's third-period goal by the Wild, he took a penalty in overtime and he couldn't beat Devan Dubnyk to win Friday's shootout.

Luckily for the Wild, after Jason Pominville's original shootout goal was negated in the third round, Chris Stewart and Eric Staal scored in the fifth and sixth rounds and the Wild found a way to win another one-goal game, the latest by a 3-2 score in Minnesota's first home game in two weeks.

When Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who forced overtime with a power-play goal with 4 minutes, 39 seconds left in the third period, missed his shootout attempt, Dubnyk rejoiced.

"I needed to get in front of one of those for the guys," said Dubnyk, upset he let in goals by Leon Draisaitl and Jordan Eberle in the shootout's third and fifth rounds. "I had two opportunities to finish the game for them earlier, and I wasn't very happy with myself, so that was why there was a big celebration."

Dubnyk, 5-0-2 in his past seven starts, gave up two goals or fewer for the 16th time in 21 starts. He is 8-0-1 against his former Oilers team, and the Wild is 5-1-3 in its past nine games.

In overtime, Zach Parise was high-sticked by McDavid to trigger a 4-on-3. Cam Talbot made five of his nine overtime stops on the power play, plus Charlie Coyle and Staal hit posts.

That's why Staal, who was only 5-for-23 in shootouts, was so ecstatic to score the deciding shootout goal.

"I was disappointed not being able to finish it off in overtime," Staal said. "I wanted to make sure I buried it for the group."

Before Staal, Stewart scored a beautiful goal after Mikko Koivu, Parise and Coyle missed.

"When Chuckie was up and missed, I kind of locked eyes with Bruce there and kind of gave him the look there letting him know I was ready to go," Stewart said, laughing. "I had the breakaway goal in Toronto, and I'm definitely feeling it. I want to be in spots like that. I want to win the game for my team."

Stewart was also part of an effective Wild fourth line with Tyler Graovac and Kurtis Gabriel. They spent the majority of their shifts in the offensive zone and generated scoring chances.

"I mean, they bring energy — all three of those guys," Boudreau said. "And they play big; they give the rest of the team some protection. … After the first period, I quit caring who they were playing against, other than playing against McDavid. I wanted Mikko against McDavid all night."

The Wild got satisfaction from shutting down McDavid for the second time in five days. Dubnyk stopped him six times, including on a tricky drive to the net in the first period.

"He's one of the best, if not the best, player in the league," Dubnyk said. "I wouldn't want to be seeing him every night. He's such a dynamic player. He's a fun challenge to play against."

Draisaitl, who has six goals in the past six games, gave the Oilers an early lead, but defenseman Matt Dumba tied the score for the Wild after a great wall play by Nino Niederreiter. Early in the third, McDavid, because of Koivu's pressure, dropped a pass to Mikael Granlund, who fed Zucker in front for the go-ahead goal, Zucker's seventh point in seven games.

The Wild played in its fifth overtime in nine games and 18th one-goal game out of 26 (7-7-4).

"Wins are wins in this league. It's close. It's tight. It seems every game is 2-1 or 3-2," Staal said. "If we can feel comfortable in those matches, it's going to help us more as we move forward throughout the season."