Wild defeat Maple Leafs in shootout for sixth straight victory

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- The Minnesota Wild won their sixth straight game, 4-3 in a shootout against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Xcel Energy Center on Saturday.

Mats Zuccarello scored in the second period and in the shootout, Joel Eriksson Ek had two assists, and Cam Talbot made 39 saves for Minnesota (17-6-1), which has a seven-game point streak (6-0-1).
"We did so many real good things," Wild coach Dean Evason said. "We had great looks. They did too. It was a real good hockey game. Real good hockey game by two really good teams. It was fun to be part of but whichever way it ended it was a good hockey game."
Jason Spezza had two goals and an assist, and Morgan Rielly had three assists for Toronto (17-6-2), which had won five straight overall and seven straight on the road to tie its record.
"It's a big point for us," Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said. "I love that our guys didn't go away at 3-0. They just dug in and wanted to make a game of it. We fought hard, we played well enough … All those things combined to give us a gutsy character point here on the road."
Auston Matthews extended his goal streak to five games, the sixth five-game goal streak of his NHL career. Only two players have had more with the Maple Leafs, Babe Dye (eight times) and Rick Vaive (seven).

The Maple Leafs played without forward Mitchell Marner, who left practice early Friday after taking a hit from defenseman Jake Muzzin.
"Mitch is a guy you can't replace," Matthews said. "We got a lot of guys here within our group, so no matter who it is, I got full confidence."
Keefe said Marner will not be available for the game at the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday.
"They want to see how he responded this morning and they were looking at it, gave it some time during the day and decided that it was [best] to give him the weekend and get back home and get a better idea of what's happening there," Keefe said. "We don't expect him to be out long term though."
Jordan Greenway scored on a rebound of a Matt Dumba slapshot with 24 seconds left in the first period to give the Wild a 1-0 lead.
"Everyone's going to want to beat us right now," Greenway said. "So we got to be ready for that and we got to be ready to respond."
Zuccarello made it 2-0 on a power play at 5:21 of the second period, a shot from the left hashes that deflected off Toronto defenseman Justin Holl's skate.

Marcus Foligno increased the lead to 3-0 at 8:07 on a rebound after Eriksson Ek's shot was blocked.
The Maple Leafs outshot the Wild 20-7 and scored three unanswered goals in the second period to tie the game 3-3.
Spezza cut it to 3-1 at 12:47 and brought Toronto within 3-2 with a one-timer on the power play at 17:51.
Matthews redirected a pass from Spezza for a power-play goal to tie it 3-3 at 19:10.
"We got a lucky break on my first one, good power plays and a little back and forth," Spezza said. "Two good hockey clubs settled by a shootout is a pretty good game.
NOTES: Wild forward Kirill Kaprizov has scored 11 points (four goals, seven assists) in a season-high five-game point streak. He has scored 80 points (36 goals, 44 assists) in 79 games, eclipsing Brian Rolston (84 games) for the fewest games to reach 80 points (NHL debut or otherwise) in Wild history. … Minnesota forward Ryan Hartman had his five-game point streak end (four goals, four assists). … Talbot won his 13th game to tie Campbell and Igor Shesterkin of the New York Rangers for the most in the NHL. … Greenway has four points (two goals, two assists) in the last three games. … Zuccarello has nine points (four goals, five assists) in his past seven games. … Minnesota finished 5-0-0 on its homestand. … Maple Leafs forward Ondrej Kase had two shots and blocked two shots in 16:31 after missing three games with an upper body injury. … Maple Leafs forward Michael Bunting had his five-game point streak end (two goals, seven assists).