Points from Pominville help Wild defeat Blue Jackets

It took Jason Pominville two games to get his first two points for the Minnesota Wild.

Pominville assisted on the first goal and scored the last one in Minnesota's 3-0 win against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Sunday at Nationwide Arena.

"I think our first game we did some good things, weren't able to get on the board," said Pominville, who was traded from the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday and debuted for the Wild the next night. "Tonight we were able to get on the board."

Pominville has been placed on the Wild's top line with Mikko Koivu and Zach Parise.

"I think the most important thing is communication," Pominville said. "We're still trying to get a [feel] for where we want each other to be in certain situations. I think a lot of it comes with talking to each other and communication, and I think it can only be better."

Nicklas Backstrom made 24 saves for the Wild; he won his League-Leading 20th game of the season, his second by shutout.

Backstrom was pulled after allowing two goals on two shots against the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday, and is now 17-0-2 after being removed from the previous game.

"He's a workhorse, he plays hard," Wild defenseman Ryan Suter said. "I didn't know that stat; that's pretty incredible. It's always reassuring when you see he's back there."

Minnesota ended a three-game losing streak before starting a three-game homestand against the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday, followed by the St. Louis Blues and Columbus.

"Certainly we're not going to sit here and say this road trip was a huge success," Wild coach Mike Yeo said. "But we found a way to win a very important game for us, and now we have to make sure we push this one aside and get ready for our next one.

"We've got three home games coming up, and obviously some good competition, so we have to make sure we're sharp and ready to go."

Columbus, which had gotten at least a point in its previous 12 home games, lost after playing six of seven on the road.

"You have to give them some credit for how they played," Columbus coach Todd Richards said. "… The second period was a real flat period for us, just really disappointing from a sense of the importance of the game.

"We had no energy, and in a game like this, playing at home in front of your home fans. Maybe it's something I had grown accustomed to, the way that we were playing here at home, and the way that we had played over the past close to about two months now. ... So I think it was something that was out of the norm that I wasn't expecting in a game like this."

Minnesota scored two power-play goals 12 minutes apart in the second period.

Suter got the first when he took a drop pass from Jared Spurgeon and fired a slap shot past Blue Jackets goalie Sergei Bobrovsky at 3:13. Pominville got his first point for Minnesota with an assist on a pass to Spurgeon.

Charlie Coyle tapped in a pass from Mikael Granlund at 15:03 for the 2-0 lead.

"The penalty kill, it was a couple execution [errors] where we didn't execute, they did," Richards said. "And it ends up in the back of your net -- two huge goals."

The Blue Jackets also were 0-for-4 on the power play, including two in the third period.

"In this critical time of the season, you need your power play to step up, special teams has to step up," Columbus forward R.J. Umberger said. "Our [penalty kill] for the first time in a long time gave up a couple of goals, and that's the difference."

Pominville tipped in a pass from Parise with 1:25 left in the game. He had 10 goals for Buffalo, but one in the 15 games prior to him being traded.

His wife, children and father-in-law drove to the arena from their home in Buffalo.

"I talked to my wife on the phone and everything seemed normal," Pominville said. "It was a nice surprise to see her and the kids before the game."

Material from team media and wire services was used in this report