Ryan Donato recorded his second career two-goal game as the Minnesota Wild snapped a three-game losing streak with a 5-2 victory over the New York Rangers on Saturday night.
The Wild showed life after a dismal 4-1 loss to Dallas on Thursday that featured few scoring chances and several long droughts between shots on goal.
Donato scored Minnesota's first two goals and had numerous chances to get a hat trick. He led the Wild with six shots and scored his third and fourth goals since being acquired from the Boston Bruins last month for Charlie Coyle.
Eric Staal also scored for the Wild, who won for just the second time in their last 11 home games (2-6-3) since Jan. 19. Defenseman Jared Spurgeon added a power-play goal in the third period and J.T. Brown scored an empty-net tally for Minnesota, which outscored the Rangers 9-3 in the two meetings this season.
Devan Dubnyk made 26 saves after allowing nine goals in Minnesota's three-game skid.
Mika Zibanejad and Pavel Buchnevich scored for the Rangers, who went 0-3-1 on their four-game road game trip, lost their seventh straight road game and dropped to 2-6-5 in their last 13 games.
Henrik Lundqvist allowed four goals on 45 shots and dropped to 2-7-2 in his last 11 starts.
Minnesota totaled 18 shots and took a 2-1 lead after the opening period by capitalizing on New York turnovers by Neal Pionk and Filip Chytil.
Pontus Aberg pried the puck from Pionk along the right half boards in New York's offensive zone. Donato sped up the ice, Aberg quickly connected with him and Donato finished off the 2-on-1 by lifting a wrist shot from near the right circle over Lundqvist's stick.
The Rangers tied it less than two minutes later thanks to a fluky play when Zibanejad flicked a wrist shot from the left corner before Dubnyk could get back in position.
The game stayed tied for another 10:05 until Chytil coughed up the puck to Jason Zucker behind the net. Zucker quickly whipped the puck to Luke Kunin, whose wrist shot from the middle of the slot was redirected by Donato.
The Wild went up 3-1 less than five minutes into the second when Staal's cross-ice pass intended for Zach Parise on a 2-on-1 caromed off Pionk's stick and under Lundqvist.
--Field Level Media
NY Rangers | Minnesota | |
Pavel Buchnevich 1 | Points | Ryan Donato 2 |
Pavel Buchnevich 1 | Goals | Ryan Donato 2 |
Tony DeAngelo 1 | Assists | Kevin Fiala 2 |
N/A | Power Play Goals | Jared Spurgeon 1 |
N/A | Short Handed Goals | N/A |
Henrik Lundqvist .913 | Save Percentage | Devan Dubnyk .929 |
Henrik Lundqvist 42 | Saves | Devan Dubnyk 26 |
Team | Shots | Goals | Power Play | Penalty Kill | Penalty Mins | Face Offs Won |
NY Rangers | 28 | 2 | 0-2 | 2-3 | 8 | 32 |
Minnesota | 47 | 5 | 1-3 | 2-2 | 6 | 34 |