ST. PAUL, Minn. – Nick Bonino and Kevin Fiala scored three goals in the third half and the aspiring Minnesota Wild beat the Arizona Coyotes 4-1 on Sunday.
Victor Rask and Joel Eriksson Ek also scored goals for Minnesota, now within two points of Vegas at the top of the West Division.
Minnesota, 11-2-1 in their last 14 games, has won a total of four straight and seven straight home wins.
Phil Kessel scored for Arizona in the second of three straight games between the teams.
Bonino was back on the ice for a few seconds after coming out of the box. He brushed the middle ice logo, took a pass from Fiala and beat Antti Raanta on the breakaway at 6:03 in the closing stages.
Fiala and Matt Dumba perfectly executed a give-and-go for a power play goal by Fiala five minutes later. It was the second goal with the man advantage in 11 games for Minnesota, which converts to the worst 8.4% of its power play chances in the league.
Kessel scored the only goal in the opening phase.
After a Dumba turnover, Lawson returned a pass to Crouse from below the right circle where Jonas Brodin mistreated him for Minnesota. Kessel quickly shot through Cam Talbot’s pads to score his first goal in eight games.
Talbot, who stopped 25 shots in the shutout win on Friday, ended the game with 21 saves. Raanta had 31 for Arizona.
Rask leveled the game early in the second with his first goal in 11 games.
Kirill Kaprizov circled behind the net and gave Mats Zuccarello a pass, whose shot was partially stopped by Raanta. With the puck on the blue color, Rask pocketed it for his sixth goal of the season. He had five in 43 games last season.
Kaprizov leads the rookies Wild and NHL with 24 points, including a hat trick on Friday. Zuccarello, who has five assists in the last three games, is third on the team with 18 points.
INJURY UPDATES
Arizona D Niklas Hjalmarsson missed the game with an upper body injury. It is listed as day by day. D Ilya Lyubushkin played for the first time in five games. … Wilder LW Marcus Foligno missed the game. He left the game on Friday after being struck by a blow to his right lower leg. The team did not provide an update. … Wild C Marcus Johansson (upper body injury) trained on Saturday but missed his 13th game in a row.
NEXT
The teams will finish a three-game series in St. Paul on Tuesday.
