Talbot helps Wild win seventh straight, hand Oilers third loss in row

EDMONTON -- Cam Talbot made 38 saves, and the Minnesota Wild won their seventh straight game, 4-1 against the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place on Tuesday.

Joel Eriksson Ek had a goal and an assist, and Jonas Brodin and Mats Zuccarello each had two assists for Minnesota (18-6-1), which has a season-high eight-game point streak (7-0-1).
"It was an intense game, we expected that coming into this building against a team that didn't have the game they wanted the last game [5-1 loss to Los Angeles Kings on Sunday]," Talbot said. "We knew they were going to come out hard, and they did, and we weathered the storm and we came out with the win. I can't say enough about the way we closed out the game. You don't want to have lulls in the game, but give the guys credit, they just found a way to battle and win the hockey game."
Jesse Puljujarvi scored, and Mikko Koskinen made 22 saves for Edmonton (16-8-0), which has lost three straight.
"They're a team that's obviously feeling it and I thought we got off to a better start," Oilers center Connor McDavid said. "We were controlling the play on the first shift there, and kind of a call there and they score on the power play. That's the way it goes. I thought we looked more engaged, getting pucks to the net, having zone time, and to find ourselves down 2-0 after the first, we probably deserved a little better than that. I liked our response in the second, and obviously couldn't complete the comeback."
Talbot was making his first start in Edmonton since leaving the Oilers after four seasons (2015-19).
"I've been back in this building a couple of times, but never got the start," Talbot said. "It's nice, this place will always have a place in our heart, we started our family here and it was a great building to play in and I still have a lot of great friends here. It's one of those things where you look forward to coming back here every time, and it's even more fun when you get a big win."
Eriksson Ek scored on the power play at 1:11 of the first period to give the Wild a 1-0 lead. He took a rebound off the end boards on a shot from Zuccarello and stuffed the puck past Koskinen.

Marcus Foligno made it 2-0 at 7:14, converting a centering pass from Matt Dumba on a 3-on-2 rush.
"We had way more energy tonight, we had way more determination and battle getting to the net," Oilers coach Dave Tippett said. "We didn't get rewarded for it, but that's a step in the right direction."
Puljujarvi cut it to 2-1 at 6:34 of the second period, converting a pass out front from McDavid, who collected his own rebound on a sharp-angled shot and circled the net.
The Oilers outshot the Wild 20-6 in the second period and had two power plays but were unable to score. The Oilers were 0-for-5 on the power play and the Wild were 1-for-2.
"We had some chances but we're not capitalizing as much as we were earlier in the year," Tippett said. "You have to keep pounding away. We're still getting some looks, and sometimes the puck goes into the net probably more than they should, and sometimes they don't go in as much as they should. Tonight was one of those nights that we didn't get enough around the net."

Victor Rask extended the lead to 3-1 at 5:33 of the third period, converting a cross-crease pass from Brodin. Zuccarello also had an assist, his 300th in the NHL.
Dmitry Kulikov scored on a breakaway at 14:57 for the 4-1 final.
"We're a confident group right now," Kulikov said. "We came out strong, we jumped out to a two-goal lead and then our penalty kill helped and Talbot was strong in the net. They came at us hard in the second period, but we weathered it and were able to kill penalties and we were able to turn it in the third period because we knew we didn't have our best in the second."
NOTES:Minnesota tied its third-longest winning streak. It won 12 straight from Dec. 4-29, 2016 and nine in a row from March 8-24, 2007. … Wild forward Kirill Kaprizov had an assist to extend his point streak to six games (four goals, eight assists). … Oilers forward Devin Shore had two hits playing 9:20 after missing 13 games with a lower-body injury. … McDavid has scored 14 points (six goals, eight assists) in the past nine games.