SAINT PAUL, Minn. -- With 36 games to play, you would be unwise to tell the New Jersey Devils their playoff chances are slim. After upsetting the NHL's hottest team, those chances are starting to fatten up quickly.

Beau Bennett, Kyle Palmieri and Adam Henrique scored third-period goals as the Devils overcame a pair of deficits and cooled off the red-hot Wild just a bit, beating Minnesota 4-3 Tuesday.

The Devils, who also got a power-play goal from Pavel Zacha and 32 saves from goalie Cory Schneider, seemed content to just hang on through the first 30 minutes as Minnesota built a 2-0 lead. But New Jersey (19-18-9) turned the tables in the third period to finish its four-game road trip 3-0-1.

"I think we really have to rip a bunch off here to get in playoff position, but we're keeping ourselves in the conversation and we're giving ourselves a chance," Schneider said. "If we came out on this trip and only got one or two points, it would've been hard to be in shouting distance of that last playoff spot, but we took care of business.

"You can't do it all in one night or one game or one week. It's going to take the rest of the year to claw back into it. This is a good start."

Jared Spurgeon, Jason Zucker and Erik Haula scored for the Wild (28-10-5), who controlled long stretches of the play but could not put the Devils away early when they had the opportunity. Devan Dubnyk finished with 22 saves for Minnesota, which lost for only the fifth time at home this season (14-5-0).

"Well, they kept pushing, and I'm sure they believed they were going to tie it up the way they came out in the third period," Minnesota coach Bruce Boudreau said. "We just did some uncharacteristically dumb things on all their goals. You can call it what you want, but they earned it and we didn't."

Bennett's wrist shot with 2:17 to play eluded Dubnyk on the glove side for the game-winner. The play was set up by a pass from Blake Coleman, who got his first NHL point with the assist.

"It was huge getting the confidence to be out there late in the game," Bennett said. "Obviously, (Coleman) made a great play, taking on a few of their defensemen, holding on to it, waiting for me to come off the bench and made a great pass, and I'm happy for him to get his first NHL point in a critical time."

The Wild led 2-1 to start the third before Henrique forged a tie with a seeing-eye shot that beat Dubnyk over the right shoulder. Haula re-established a 3-2 lead for the Wild midway through the third, but Palmieri re-tied the game 22 seconds later.

"It's frustrating because we threw it away," Dubnyk said. "We haven't done that. We talked about this is an important game for us. Tie game with two minutes left, that's where we're usually solid."

Minnesota, which lost for only the second time in regulation since Dec. 1, played a thoroughly dominant opening period. The Wild outshot New Jersey 15-6 and netted the only goal of the session when Spurgeon scored on the game's first power play.

Schneider stopped the initial shot by Wild right winger Nino Niederreiter, but the rebound sailed high into the air and to the right of the net. Spurgeon gloved the flying puck, dropped it, then batted it out of the air when the puck fell to waist level. Schneider, still recovering from his save of the Niederreiter shot, had no chance to stop Spurgeon's bunt at 17:58.

Zucker doubled the Wild lead at 9:24 of the second period, taking a lead pass from Mikael Granlund and firing a rising backhander that found a gap between the right post and Schneider's right leg pad.

However, the Devils answered before the period was over, scoring on their first power play of the game.

Zacha caught a cross-ice pass from Palmieri and snapped off a low shot from the right circle. Spurgeon was able to deflect the puck slightly, but not enough to keep it out of the net. It was Zacha's third goal of the season and his first since Nov. 25.

"Our goal coming into the game was to be more competitive in these types of games where you're playing a team like the Wild that have had lots of success. They're a top-tier team in the league at this point, and we hadn't been competitive," Devils coach John Hynes said. "We stayed competitive in that situation, and fortunately we were able to get ourselves some goals and get back in the game."

NOTES: For the seventh consecutive game, the Devils were without a pair of defensive mainstays. John Moore is out of the lineup with a concussion, and Andy Greene is absent because of a lower-body injury. ... Jan. 17 marks the latest point in a full season that the Wild have led the Western Conference standings. In 2013 they sat atop the West on Jan. 20, but that was with a 2-0-0 record in a lockout-shortened season. ... A young Minnesotan who helped Team USA win the gold medal earlier this month at the World Junior Championships in Montreal was honored by the Wild before the game. St. Cloud State University freshman D Jack Ahcan played for the Americans who went undefeated in the tournament to win the country's fourth World Juniors gold. ... The Devils return home next to face the Montreal Canadiens in Newark on Friday. The Wild are in the midst of a four-game home stand and will face the Arizona Coyotes on Thursday in Saint Paul.