Rask's late goal helps Hurricanes defeat reeling Wild
RALEIGH, N.C. -- Victor Rask scored with 3:24 left and Eddie Lack stopped 30 shots as the Carolina Hurricanes defeated the slumping Minnesota Wild 3-1 on Thursday night.
Rask darted out of the corner and made a beeline to the net to stuff the game winner past Devan Dubnyk, who was gunning for his 37th victory of the season. Elias Lindholm assisted on Rask's 16th of the season to extend his point streak to five straight games.
Carolina (29-27-12) improved to 6-1-2 all-time at home against Minnesota (43-20-6), which dropped its season-worst third in a row in regulation. In addition, Lack, playing in only his 13th game all season, improved to 3-0-1 in his career against the Wild.
Lack, who won four games this season as Cam Ward's backup, made a series of saves less than two minutes before the Rask goal.
Teuvo Teravainen scored an empty-net goal with 1:26 remaining.
The Wild, battling Chicago and San Jose for the best record in the Western Conference in coach Bruce Boudreau's 750th career game, fell to 2-6-0 in their last eight, ending a five-game road trip on a downer by losing four of five.
Special teams came into play on each of the team's first-period goals.
Carolina's Derek Ryan scored his 11th goal on the power play at 4:37 on a rebound, but the Hurricanes allowed the equalizer on a short-handed goal eight minutes later as Mikael Granlund notched his team-leading 24th on a nice give-and-go with Mikko Koivu.
NOTES: Minnesota C Martin Hanzal missed his third straight game with an illness. ... The Hurricanes signed 19-year-old G Callum Booth, who ranks first in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League in wins (31) and save percentage (.911). ... Wild C Eric Staal, who played his first 11-plus seasons with Carolina, is two games shy of 1,000 for his career. ... Minnesota allowed four goals in each of its previous four road games. ... Wild D Ryan Suter played in his 900th career game.