Wild 4, Canadiens 1
MONTREAL – Markus Granlund scored twice to lead the Minnesota Wild to a 4-1 win over the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night at the Bell Centre.
Nino Niederreiter and Erik Haula scored the other goals for Minnesota, which snapped a two-game losing streak and kept pace in the battle for the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference.
Mark Barberio scored the lone goal for the Canadiens.
Mike Condon stopped 18 shots for Montreal (32-31-6) while Devan Dubnyk made 30 saves for the Wild (32-27-10).
Niederreiter took advantage of a mistake by Condon to open the scoring for the Wild at 10:52 of the first period. With the puck rolling into the Canadiens' zone, Condon darted out to the top of the circles to play the puck and clear the zone. His clearing attempt never made it out, landing directly on Niederreiter's stick, and the winger fired from the top of the circle into an empty net as Condon tried to get back.
Barberio brought the crowd to life nearly a minute and a half later. Max Pacioretty skated across the blue line before dishing off to Sven Andrighetto at the top of the right circle. Andrighetto took a shot from the dot and Dubnyk made the save, but Barberio got his stick on the rebound, flipping it into the net for his second of the season.
Granlund restored Minnesota's lead at 13:20.
Matt Dumba took the puck at the blue line and skated down low before feeding Granlund from below the goal line. Stationed at the bottom of the right circle, the center made no mistake, quickly firing it past Condon.
Granlund picked up his second of the night at 11:49 of the second period on the power play.
With time winding down on the man advantage, Thomas Vanek, just above the goal line, dished off to Marco Scandella at the point. Scandella fired a shot and Condon made the save, but Vanek was there to pounce on the loose puck, poking it over to an uncovered Granlund on the right side.
Haula capped off the scoring with an empty net tally.
NOTES: Montreal D P.K. Subban missed Saturday's game because of a neck injury sustained on Thursday against the Buffalo Sabres, ending his team-leading iron man streak at 274 games. ... With C Lars Eller (flu) and LW Stefan Matteau (lower-body injury) also sidelined, the Canadiens called up D Darren Dietz, who made his NHL debut, and LW Charles Hudon. ... Minnesota RW Jason Pominville missed his second straight game with a lower-body injury. ... Called up on Friday from AHL Iowa, C Jordan Schroeder suited up for the Wild, while LW Chris Porter, LW Jason Zucker and D Mike Reilly were scratched. ... Saturday's game was the first of four straight against Eastern Conference opponents for the Wild.