ST. PAUL, Minn. - Darcy Kuemper made 34 saves, Jared Spurgeon had two assists in his return from injury and the Minnesota Wild defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-1 on Tuesday night.

Nino Niederreiter and Dany Heatley scored for the Wild, who are 6-3-2 in Kuemper's 11 straight starts ? a franchise record for rookie goalies.

Valtteri Filppula scored his 20th of the season for the Lightning, who got a strong showing from goalie Ben Bishop in a losing effort.

Minnesota welcomed Spurgeon back to the lineup after the defenceman missed 14 games with an injured left foot. But just 2 minutes into the game, the Wild had another setback on the blue line when defenceman Marco Scandella left the game after getting tangled up with Tampa Bay's Tyler Johnson.