Wild defeat Coyotes, win seventh straight

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- The Minnesota Wild won their seventh straight game with a 4-1 victory against the Arizona Coyotes at Xcel Energy Center on Saturday.
The Wild are 11-3-0 at home, including six straight wins in which they have outscored their opponents 23-8.

"I haven't talked about it much," Minnesota coach Bruce Boudreau said about the streak. "I've mentioned it because it's hard to get to seven. That is a tough thing to get to. So I think it's worth telling them that they've done well."
WATCH: All Coyotes vs. Wild highlights
Wild goaltender Darcy Kuemper, starting for the sixth time this season, made 27 saves to improve to 3-2-1. It was his first start since Nov. 29.
"It's never fun sitting back and watching, but it's a little bit easier when the team's been playing like they have been," Kuemper said. "It was just nice to get out there and feel like I was contributing to a good thing we've got going and it was a fun game in front of the home crowd and it was a big win."

Wild defenseman Ryan Suter opened the scoring at 16:40 of the first period with a power-play goal, his first goal in 16 games.
Minnesota forward Tyler Graovac gave the Wild a 2-0 lead with an unassisted goal at 11:35 of the second before Chris Stewart made it 3-0 at 3:24 of the third.
"It felt really good. I had a blast," Graovac said. "It's fun to be a part of this team when we're winning like this…We have momentum and we're going to keep trying to keep this tide going."
Brendan Perlini ended Kuemper's shutout when he scored with 1:54 remaining before Eric Staal added an empty-net goal with 37 seconds left to make it 4-1.
Coyotes defenseman Connor Murphy returned the lineup after missing three games with an upper-body injury and assisted on Perlini's goal. Arizona goaltender Mike Smith made 26 saves.

"We started the game well," Coyotes coach Dave Tippett said. "It was a tight game. It's a hard turnaround for our group, last game of a trip, and it was going to be a lot harder if we had to chase the game and, unfortunately, we put ourselves behind like that and never even came close to getting back."

Goal of the game

Stewart took the puck off the boards and skated in alone with a nice wrist for his goal in the third period.
"You're up two going into the third period, you definitely want to push for the third one and kind of took their hope," Stewart said. "If they get one there, then it's 2-1, it's a whole different ballgame. It's cliché, but we put the nail in the coffin."

Save of the game

Smith denied Wild forward Nino Niederreiter at 11:45 with a diving save in the second period.

Unsung performance of the game

At 14:25 of the second, Murphy stopped the puck from crossing the goal line behind Smith to keep the score 2-0.

Highlight of the game

Graovac blocked a shot by Coyotes defenseman Jakob Chychrun to start a breakout and scored his third goal of the season by slipping the puck between Smith's pads.

They said it

"We didn't give up the shots we have in the past, but we gave up probably more Grade-A chances than we have in a while. We left Smitty out to make huge saves almost every shift. That was really frustrating how we didn't play hard enough to get a better effort." - Arizona Coyotes forward Connor Murphy
"He's so quiet, I don't know if his confidence has skyrocketed or not. He doesn't say a word, but he's playing like he thinks he belongs, which is important." - Minnesota Wild coach Bruce Boudreau on forward Tyler Graovac
"I think Bruce was rolling with three centermen and saying, 'Grao you're up. Grao you're up.' I've never heard him say my name so many times." - Tyler Graovac on skating a career-high 18:45 of total ice time

Need to know

Wild forward Erik Haula left the game at 5:02 of the first period with a lower-body injury and did not return. Boudreau said he will know more on his status on Monday. ... Wil forward Zac Dalpe has been cleared to play. He has missed 21 games with a knee injury. ... Doan remained one goal from 400 in his career. … Parise has a four-game point streak (one goal, three assists).

What's next

Wild: Host the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday (8 p.m. ET; FS-N, ALT2, NHL.TV)
Coyotes: Host the Calgary Flames on Monday (9 p.m. ET; FS-A, SNF, NHL.TV)