Minnesota Wild Wins 6th Straight Behind Goalie Devan Dubnyk’s 34 Saves

Eric Staal scored two goals and Devan Dubnyk stopped 34 of 36 shots as the Minnesota Wild beat the Nashville Predators 5-2 in Nashville on December 15th. It was Minnesota’s sixth straight victory, and the Wild’s record improved to 17-8-4 on the season and Minnesota stayed tied with St. Louis for second place in the NHL Central with 38 points. Chicago leads with 44 points.

While you won’t find the Wild’s players among the individual scoring leaders, the team as a whole has been very productive, ranking eighth in the league in goals scored per game with 2.9. They have excelled on defense, and are allowing just 2.0 goals per game, which leads the league. A lot of the credit for that goes to goalie Devan Dubnyk, who has been outstanding in the nets. Dubnyk (15-6-3) leads the league with a goals against average of 1.62; he also leads in save percentage (.947).

Last season, Dubnyk was 32-26-6 with a 2.33 goals against average for the Wild. While that was solid, but unspectacular, he was 27-9-2 with a 1.78 GAA in 39 games in 2014-15 after being picked up in a trade with Arizona in January of ’15. Dubnyk languished as a sub .500 goalie for his first five seasons with Edmonton and Nashville, but at age 30, he appears to be entering his prime.