Three of four points not bad for Wild on difficult back-to-back

ST. PAUL -- With its five-game winning streak on the line, there's nothing the Wild would have liked any better than pushing that to six in front of its home crowd on Sunday night.
But all things considered -- playing the second of back-to-back games, a 2 1/2-hour flight, an early puck drop on Sunday and a matchup with yet another first-place opponent -- not too shabby.
Minnesota's win streak died on Sunday but its season-long points streak reached six games as the Wild got a critical point in a 3-2 shootout loss to the Nashville Predators at Xcel Energy Center.

Wild coach Bruce Boudreau wasn't satisfied by the result in the aftermath of the game Sunday night, but admitted it'll probably sit a little better with him on Monday.
"It will be probably by the morning," he said. "But I mean, when it just happened we certainly would've liked to get that extra point in the position that we're in."

The Wild seemed in position to pull off the double dip, scoring twice less than three minutes apart late in the second period to take a 2-1 lead into the second intermission.
Still up a goal late, Minnesota killed a penalty to Joel Eriksson Ek, but saw Nashville tie the game moments after it expired.
Alex Stalock came up huge on several occasions, making 16 saves in the third period and overtime, during which, the Wild put just three shots on Predators goaltender Juuse Saros.

None the less, when the final horn of regulation sounded, Minnesota had a well-earned point.
"I thought our effort was great," said Wild defenseman Ryan Suter. "With the kind of the adversity we faced the last day here, I thought our effort was great and I thought Al played solid and it was a good night."
Nashville, who was in St. Paul for the better part of the past two days while Minnesota was in Calgary, was unable to take advantage of a seemingly tired opponent in the first.
Nick Bonino made it 1-0 at 5:21 of the first, but Stalock and the Wild were able to keep its ledger clean for the next 40 minutes.
During the Wild's stretch of games coming out of the bye week, that may not have been the case.
Minnesota fell behind often during a 1-6-3 stretch between Feb. 1 and Feb. 19. It lost confidence and its belief that it could overcome adversity.
That has changed during its six-game points streak. Confidence has bred confidence, as evidenced by the Wild's two-goal outburst late in the second.

All of the sudden, those tired legs seemed to have some more jump.
"I think that lately every time we go on the ice we think we're going to win. We don't think something bad is going to happen to us. We are going to get the lead and we're going to hold it," Boudreau said. "We played some pretty good teams in the last three games and we might've got outshot but we played them on an even keel. It's very uplifting and positive. It's not going to get easier. It's just something we know we can do when we put our mind to it."
It's been a stretch of games that has been critical, as teams around them in the Western Conference wild-card race have started winning again. It's allowed the Wild to maintain its spot smack in the middle of that group.
The Wild tied Dallas with 71 points for the top wild card spot, although the Stars maintain that position with its one game in hand.

And while the disappointment of not winning on Sunday may sting in the moment, Minnesota's ability to nab three out of four points in a span of 21 hours ain't too bad ... all things considered.
"We all expected to win that game no matter what the travel is, especially if we played our game," said Wild forward Jason Zucker. "I thought we played pretty well. We had a slow start. I think we got into it a bit late. But I thought overall it was pretty good."
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