Dubnyk’s third straight shutout leads Wild to win

Three Midwest based teams headed into National Hockey League play on Saturday (Oct. 29) and all three were involved with shutouts.

Leading the way was Devan Dubnyk who recorded an unheard of third straight shutout, stopping all 29 Dallas Stars shots, leading the Minnesota Wild to a 4-0 win at the Xcel Energy Center.

The Detroit Red Wings found themselves on the opposite side of a whitewash as a 35-save effort by Jimmy Howard was overshadowed a bit by a 24-save shutout win for Tuukka Rask and a 1-0 win for the Boston Bruins at Joe Louis Arena.

The St. Louis Blues got a 27-save shutout effort from Jake Allen to hold off the Los Angeles Kings 1-0 at the Scottrade Center.

Stars 0 at Wild 4

While Dubnyk was kicking out everything, the goaltending woes continue for the Dallas Stars as the Wild scored four times on 15 shots against Kari Lehtonen.

Mikael Granlund notched his first goal of the season, a shorty, 5:35 into the contest and that stood up as the game winner, thanks to Dubnyk. After a scoreless second period, Nino Niedereitter scored his second of the year 3:08 into the final frame and Eric Staal added another just past the halfway mark, his fourth.

Tyler Graovac, who played the previous evening in Des Moines, suited up for the parent team in the Twin Cities and rounded out the scoring with his first NHL goal, 7:23 from the final buzzer.

Bruins 1 at Red Wings 0

After an even opening period with seven shots apiece, the Bruins dominated the second period in Detroit, firing 18 shots at Howard and it paid off with a goal from Tim Schaller, his first of the year, 2:49 from the end of the period.

The Wings failed to find an opening for the equalizer and Rask picked up the shutout win.

Kings 0 at Blues 1

Blues and Kings settled nothing through the first 40 minutes as the Kings held a 20-13 edge in shots, but Allen and Peter Budaj for the Kings stopped everything.

Jaden Schwartz, just recently back from injury, finally found an opening for the only goal of the contest, 3:43 into the third with help from Vladimir Tarasenko and Jori Lehtera.

Sunday Games

The Red Wings will stay at home and face the Florida Panthers in action on Sunday (Oct. 30) while the Kings will move on to the United Center to face the Chicago BlackHawks.