If the NHL named a team of the week, it would probably have to be Devan Dubnyk and the Minnesota Wild this time around.
Dubnyk extended his shutout streak to three consecutive games on Saturday as the Wild blew out the Dallas Stars 4-0.
For most of the night, the game was a lot closer that that. In fact, there were probably more than a few Stars who felt like they deserved to win, at least before things got out of hand in the third period.
Just look at the second period. The Stars generated a ridiculous 13-1 shots on goal advantage in the middle frame but were unable to get any pucks past Dubnyk.
Minnesota pulled away with three goals in the third period to crush whatever spirit Dubnyk didn’t already drain from a struggling Stars squad.
It looks like Dubnyk produced a new shutout record as far as Wild history goes:
#mnwild record shutout streak of 178:52 is broken bc 1:43 counts from NYI game
— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) October 30, 2016
So Dubnyk's record, team record, Kuemper's ind record broken
Again, it’s been an impressive week for the team as a whole, too.
While Dubnyk’s had to work for his goose eggs - he’s made 94 of 94 saves - the Wild beat their opponents by a total score of 13-0 in three wins this week.
This loss continues a miserable stretch for the Stars. They’ve been out-scored 8-1 in their last two losses and Dallas is 1-3-1 in its last five games. Even with injuries in mind, a 3-4-1 start is not what Stars fans or management expected in 2016-17.
About the only solace for the Stars is that they don’t need to face Minnesota again until Nov. 21. Maybe Dubnyk will cool off a bit by then?