The Western Conference’s bubble teams aren’t lying down by any means, so the Minnesota Wild still need to stay hot. Not too surprisingly, that means that they’ll continue to lean on Devan Dubnyk.
He came through in a big way - again - on Saturday, making 41 out of 42 saves as the Wild beat the St. Louis Blues 3-1.
By his lofty terms, the 28-year-old stumbled ever so slightly in losing two of his previous three games while not seeing an overwhelming amount of shots. That changed in a big way tonight, as he was up to a considerable task as the Blues lost despite generating a 42-19 shot advantage.
With this win in tow, Dubnyk’s Wild stats are pretty ridiculous.
He’s now an impressive 19-5-1 with a .937 save percentage and five shutouts since joining the Wild. (Dubnyk was solid with the Arizona Coyotes, but there’s no doubt that his game really took off with Minnesota.)
The Wild still face a small margin of error to hold onto the first wild card spot - or a playoff berth in general - yet wins like these could end up being the difference-maker (which might be just be the perfect nickname for Devan Dubnyk).
Thomas Vanek on Dubnyk: "No doubt about it he stole us two points tonight." #mnwild
— Chad Graff (@ChadGraff) March 15, 2015