Zuccarello, Wild top Coyotes in Raanta return

ST. PAUL, Minn. --Mats Zuccarello scored twice for the Minnesota Wild in a 5-2 win against the Arizona Coyotes at Xcel Energy Center on Wednesday.

Nick Bonino had a goal and two assists, and Zach Parise had a goal and an assist for the Wild (25-13-3), who had lost two straight. Cam Talbot made 28 saves.
"We had a line-match plan, and everybody seemed to be rolling and going well so we just literally rolled through the lines," Minnesota coach Dean Evason said. "I haven't had a chance to see what the minutes were, but my guess is they're all pretty similar. … Everyone contributed. It was a real good team win."

Antti Raanta made 17 saves in his return for the Coyotes (19-20-5) after missing 11 games with a lower-body injury.
"It's always different," he said. "You never know how you're going to feel when you come back from a little time off, but after those couple first bouncing pucks, you start to feel better. Overall, it was nice to get back playing, but the only thing that matters right now is to win and we didn't get it, so it's disappointment not for sure."
Jakob Chychrun and Phil Kessel scored for Arizona, which has lost five straight games in regulation and been outscored 21-11 in those games.
"We've got to win a game," Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet said. "We need to win a game just to get us feeling good about ourselves and just go from there. You can't win five in a row, you've got to win one at a time and that's what we have to do."
The Wild are third in the Honda West Division, 10 points ahead of the Coyotes, who are fifth. Arizona is one point behind the fourth-place St. Louis Blues. The top four teams will qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
"I think in the shortened season, we knew it'd be a sprint, but now it gets that much more tight," Bonino said. "Every play matters, I think guys are probably watching the standings a bit more than they were a month ago or two months ago. … What do we have, five left against [St. Louis]? That can directly impact where we fall in the standings. They're obviously of big importance here, the guys know that, and I think tonight was a good first step."

Zuccarello made it 1-0 with a power-play goal at 16:31 of the first period, finishing a pass from Marcus Johansson below the left circle.
The Wild were 3-for-3 on the power play and are 14-for-35 in their past 12 games (40.0 percent).
"I mean, we want to score every power play," Zuccarello said. "It doesn't matter what time of season it is, but obviously the season's coming down to the stretch here, it's important that we continue that and hopefully we can keep it going."
Chychrun scored on the power play at 2:16 of the second period to tie it 1-1 with a wrist shot to the right corner.
Parise gave Minnesota a 2-1 lead on a rebound at 7:28. He has scored two goals in his past three games after going 14 games without one.
"There's never a doubt on Zach Parise's work ethic," Evason said. "You've watched him over the years in practice and obviously games. He competes his butt off and he's going to do that each and every night and that clearly has allowed him to have not only success as of late but throughout his entire career."
Bonino scored on the power play after the puck deflected off Alex Goligoski's skate to make it 3-1 at 19:14.

Zuccarello scored his second power-play goal of the game at 4:30 of the third period for a 4-1 lead, and Jared Spurgeon made it 5-1 with a tap-in of a Parise pass at 5:50.
Kessel scored from the point at 8:36 to make it 5-2.
"Things change quick, huh?" Goligoski said. "We've got to figure it out quick here. We've got to go on a run here. We know how fast things can go in one direction, we know things can go like that in the other, so we've got to go."
NOTES:The Coyotes had 16 blocked shots, including a game-high four from defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson. … Kessel leads Arizona with 16 goals. … Wild forward Marcus Foligno had five hits and one shot on goal in 14:30 in his return after missing 15 games with a lower-body injury. … Minnesota is 5-1-0 against Arizona this season, outscoring them 23-9.