But for one game, at least, Niklas Backstrom made his team’s advantage look commanding.
Backstrom made a career-high 48 saves for his fourth shutout of the season to lead the Wild to a 2-0 win over the Boston Bruins on Sunday.
Matt Cullen and newly recalled Chad Rau each scored second-period goals for Minnesota, which won for only the second time this month, and Backstrom did the rest to frustrate the Bruins.
Boston outworked Minnesota early on offense and held the Wild to only three shots in the final period. But Backstrom stopped 22 shots in the third period, earning the 26th shutout of his career.
Minnesota’s previous victory came Feb. 2 at Colorado. Minnesota went winless in its next seven games, scoring only nine goals during that span.
“Winning, that’s fun, that’s why you play, and we haven’t had a lot of wins in the last couple of months, so sure it’s been tough,” Backstrom said. “Hopefully this is a good start for something new. We’ll try to enjoy this. We learned the last couple of months, you can’t take anything for granted.”
Backstrom’s save total was the highest by a Wild goalie in a shutout. Not bad considering he was 0-3-2 in his past five starts.
“ It’s almost a little unfair on those guys. It’s the one position where you’re solely judged on your wins and losses, as opposed to the rest of the guys,” Wild coach Mike Yeo said.
Tim Thomas made 27 saves for the Bruins, who have lost six of 10 and were shut out for the fourth time in nine games.
The Bruins have lost consecutive road games for the first time this season. The defending Stanley Cup champions are 1-10-1 in 12 games against the Wild.
Thomas said the team can’t afford to get ahead of itself in trying to get back to winning consistently.
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