Wild hold off Jets, end skid at five

WINNIPEG -- Devan Dubnyk made 26 saves, and the Minnesota Wild ended a five-game losing streak with a 3-1 win against the Winnipeg Jets at Bell MTS Place on Saturday.

Matt Bartkowski, Charlie Coyle and Eric Fehr scored for the Wild (18-16-3), who were 0-4-1 during their losing streak and had lost 10 of their previous 13 games (3-9-1).
"It's such a good road game," Dubnyk said. "You could just see every line that came on the ice had a focus, they knew exactly what the job was and just made] real smart plays. Just sharp, hard-working shifts almost every single time rolling over. Playing like that is going to win a lot of hockey games. This is a really big game for us."
***[WATCH: [All Wild vs. Jets highlights]*
Patrik Laine scored his first goal in six games for the Jets (24-12-2), who have scored one goal or fewer in four of their past five games and lost two straight. Connor Hellebuyck made 22 saves.
"I'm sure we'll take a look at it but even when it dries up a little bit with our group we're never too worried about our offense," Jets defenseman Tyler Myers said. "We've had meetings, we know it starts with our team defense. We make sure we're focused coming into the next game and we're confident with our group. We've been around and we'll bounce back for sure. It's not something we're going to dwell on, these last two. We'll come out ready to go."
Bartkowski made it 1-0 on a wrist shot from the point at 9:28 of the first period. He was recalled from Iowa of the American Hockey League on Saturday and made his Wild debut with defenseman Nick Seeler out because of an upper-body injury.

"Pretty awesome," Bartkowski said of his debut. "You get the win too, so you can't really draw it up any better than that."
Coyle scored after slipping in behind Winnipeg forward Adam Lowry to chip the puck past Hellebuyck, putting Minnesota up 2-0 at 2:17 of the second period.
"They played really well," Jets forward Blake Wheeler said. "You've got to give them a lot of the credit for how they played. They worked really hard, they got above the puck. So, I guess in this league teams are going to do that. We've got to figure out a way to battle through it."
Laine pulled the Jets within 2-1 with a power-play goal at 7:21 of the third period.

Fehr scored into an empty net with 47 seconds remaining for the 3-1 final.
"It was like a business game," Minnesota coach Bruce Boudreau said. "I thought all business from our games. For 60 minutes, top to bottom, that's as good as we've played in a long time."

They said it

"We didn't win the (Stanley) Cup tonight but if we can use that as the template and, look we [play] Pittsburgh and Toronto next -- doesn't get any easier -- but we didn't think this was going to be any walk in the park either. So it's a good game." -- Wild coach Bruce Boudreau
"We were slow as hell. Nothing good is going to happen for any hockey team when you skate like we did. I wouldn't say we were slow in three of our last four games by any means, without an understanding of what our schedule was and where we were at. You're not winning anything as slow as we were. And we're not a slow team." -- Jets coach Paul Maurice

Need to know

Winnipeg defenseman Dustin Byfuglien left the game in the third period with an undisclosed injury after a collision with Minnesota forward Luke Kunin. Maurice said he would have an update Sunday. … Seeler is day to day. … The Wild had scored five goals in their previous five games. They have allowed two goals or fewer in six of their past eight. … Wheeler got an assist and has 24 points (two goals, 22 assists) in his past 17 games.

What's next

Wild: Host the Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday (6 p.m. ET; ESPN+, SN, FS-N, FS-WI, ATTSN-PT, NHL.TV)
Jets: At the Edmonton Oilers on Monday (9 p.m. ET; SNW, TSN3, NHL.TV)