Haula Nets Game-Winner, Wild Beats Florida 3-1
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Erik Haula scored midway through the third period to lead the Minnesota Wild to a 3-1 victory over the Florida Panthers on Sunday.
Charlie Coyle and Jason Pominville also scored for Minnesota, which ended a nine-game winless streak (0-6-3) at the Xcel Energy Center. The Wild technically won a "home" game last Sunday beating Chicago in a Stadium Series contest at the University of Minnesota.
Devan Dubnyk stopped 17 shots as Minnesota moved two points behind Colorado for the second Western Conference wild card playoff spot.
Aaron Ekblad scored for Florida, which lost in regulation for the first time in six games.
Roberto Luongo finished with 21 saves. He replaced starter Al Montoya early in the game after Montoya suffered an upper-body injury during a collision with Minnesota's Marco Scandella and did not return.
On the game-winner, Haula blocked a neutral-zone dump-in attempt by Reilly Smith and picked up the loose puck just outside the Florida blue line. Haula beat Erik Gudbranson to the net and lifted a shot over Luongo for his career-high eighth goal of the season.
Luongo fell to 3-11-3 in Minnesota, mostly from when he was with Vancouver.
Pominville added an empty-net goal with 39 seconds left.
Coyle scored his team-leading 19th goal early in the first period for a 1-0 Wild lead, redirecting a pass from Zach Parise, who had raced from low in the right circle to high in the slot to low in the left circle before the feed. Parise was back in the Wild lineup after missing two games with an upper-body injury.
Ekblad tied the game during a second-period power play.
Wild defenseman Nate Prosser turned the puck over in the right corner, which ultimately led to a pass from Jussi Jokinen to Ekblad alone in the left slot. Dubnyk got a piece of Ekblad's shot, but it still ended up in the Minnesota net.
The Wild penalty-kill has allowed five goals in its past eight chances over four games.
NOTES: Wild C Mikko Koivu established a franchise record by playing in his 744th game with the team, surpassing former D Nick Schultz. He entered the game ranked first in Wild assists (386), points (543), shots (1,762) and multi-point games (122). ... Florida placed C Derek MacKenzie on injured reserve with an upper-body injury. He leads the team with 137 hits. ... Florida C Quinton Howden returned after missing five games with a concussion. ... Three players the Panthers acquired in Saturday trades, RW Jiri Hudler, RW Teddy Purcell and D Jakub Kindl, did not play. ... Minnesota LW Chris Porter played on the second line. He cleared waivers three hours before puck drop.
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