Wild break out of slump with win over Canucks

Vladimir Tarasenko scored a goal and picked up two assists, and the Minnesota Wild pulled away for a 5-2 win over the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday evening in St. Paul, Minn.

Jonas Brodin and Vinnie Hinostroza had a goal and an assist apiece for Minnesota, which snapped a five-game winless drought. Marco Rossi and Ryan Hartman also scored a goal.

Drew O'Connor scored two goals to lead Vancouver. Aatu Raty collected two assists.

Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson stopped 24 of 26 shots.

Canucks netminder Thatcher Demko turned aside 22 of 26 shots in the loss.

Minnesota won for the first time since Oct. 20 against the New York Rangers.

The Wild opened the scoring on the power play with 4:07 remaining in the first period. Tarasenko charged toward the net, collected a loose puck and beat Demko with a backhand shot for his second goal of the season.

Vancouver evened the score at 1 with 14:26 to go in the second period. Gustavsson stopped an initial shot by Mackenzie MacEachern, but O'Connor cleaned up the rebound with a shot into the back of the net.

The Wild grabbed a 2-1 lead on a goal by Rossi with 6:11 left in the second period. Rossi won a faceoff and scored moments later off a rebound to put his team on top.

Hinostroza scored to increase Minnesota's lead to 3-1 with 15:53 to go in the third period. Vancouver had the puck in the offensive zone before Hinostroza grabbed it and skated from end to end before firing a wrist shot past Demko for the goal.

The Wild increased their advantage to 4-1 with 14:14 remaining. Brodin fired a shot for his second goal of the season and the 60th of his career.

The Canucks pulled within 4-2 on O'Connor's second goal of the evening with 13 minutes left. He scored on a wrist shot from the top of the right circle.

Hartman scored to boost Minnesota's lead to three with 3:17 remaining.

-Field Level Media