ST. PAUL Brian Elliott Jersey , Minn. (AP) — Minnesota coach Bruce Boudreau believes the typical sense of urgency to make a playoff push is hitting teams earlier than normal this season.It certainly seemed that way for the Wild and Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday night. Disappointing home losses and tightening standings have a way of doing that.“The sense of urgency is there,” Boudreau said. “I’ve got to believe it’s going to be quite a race from here on in.”Zach Parise scored his team-leading 20th goal and Devan Dubnyk had 19 saves as the Wild held off the Blue Jackets 2-1.The Wild bounced back from a listless 3-0 defeat to Anaheim by sending the Blue Jackets to their second straight loss.Jordan Greenway also scored his ninth goal for Minnesota, which pulled into a tie with the Ducks for the final playoff spot in the West.“I think we were all disappointed with last game,” Dubnyk said of Thursday night’s loss, in which Minnesota allowed three first-period goals. “We have a lot of pride and our fans are great here and we don’t like giving them efforts like that. I think everybody was ready and prepared to come out and play, regardless of how the game went.”The Blue Jackets were coming off a tough loss of their own, falling 4-1 on Friday night at home to Montreal. That loss knocked them out of the top spot in the Metropolitan Division.Columbus won’t play again until January 29. While this certainly wasn’t the way they wanted to enter the All-Star break, the players said they plan to use the time away to reset.“It’s going to feel good to get a break,” Pierre-Luc Dubois said. “I didn’t think yesterday we played horribly. I think we still could have got a point — we didn’t. I think today just kind of the same thing. We did some good things, some bad things Womens Claude Giroux Jersey , but the break’s going to feel really good to relax a little bit.”Artemi Panarin scored Columbus’ lone goal, and Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 29 shots.Off to their second-best start in franchise history, the Blue Jackets entered the game 14-3-1 when coming off a loss this season.But they couldn’t muster much offense against a Wild team that was 1-3-0 after the loss to Anaheim, and scrapping to stay in the Western Conference playoff race.“I don’t know where the standings are going to shake out, but we’re still right there in the mix regardless of how dark it’s been at times the last little while, we’re still right there,” Parise said.Minnesota outshot Columbus 31-20, including 15-6 in the second period.“We wasted a great effort by Bob,” Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella said of his goalie. “It’s mind-boggling what we do when we get near that net and how many pucks we shoot wide or over handle.”Minnesota scored first for only the 18th time in 48 games when Greenway took a pretty pass from Eric Staal at 16:07 of the first, and fired a sharp one-timer from the left circle past Bobrovsky. Eighty-nine seconds later http://www.flyersshoponline.com/authentic-ivan-provorov-jersey , Parise made it 2-0 when Pontus Aberg tried to clear the puck from behind the net. His attempt appeared to hit off a defender’s skate and went right to Parise, who scored from the slot.Panarin scored on a wrister from the left circle at 3:07 of the second period. Dubnyk was screened by Nick Foligno on the shot.NOTES: : Newcomers Aberg and Victor Rask assisted on Parise’s goal, their first points with the Wild since being traded earlier in the week from Anaheim and Carolina, respectively. . Columbus had only six shots in the third period. … Parise has scored 20 goals in nine of 14 NHL seasons. . The Wild improved to 13-2-1 when leading after two. . Rask’s introduction to the home crowd was a bit anticlimactic. He served a two-minute penalty when Minnesota was whistled for too many men on the ice at 2:20 of the first period.UP NEXT:Blue Jackets: Off for the All-Star break, then hosting Buffalo on Jan. 29.Wild: At Vegas on Monday. ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Sidney Crosby and Phil Kessel are doing their part, continuing to pile up points for the Pittsburgh Penguins, but the team’s goaltenders might have been the headlining act in a big December.Phil Kessel had a goal and two assists, and Sidney Crosby added a goal and assist as Pittsburgh kept rolling with a 3-2 win against the Minnesota Wild on Monday night.Casey DeSmith, who stopped 40 shots to beat Minnesota on Dec. 20 Jakub Voracek Jersey Kids , made 31 saves for the Penguins, who have won eight of their past 10 games, a season-high six games in a row and finished December 11-3-1.DeSmith was 6-3-1 in December with a 2.39 goals-against average and .929 save percentage. Matt Murray, since returning from a lower-body injury, was 5-0 with a 1.38 goals-against average and .959 save percentage for Pittsburgh. Heading into the game, the two combined for a .931 save percentage in the month, which led the league.“I think they’ve got a nice, healthy competition amongst themselves right now,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “They’re both at their very best. They’re making timely saves for us. They’re making saves at key times in the game that give us a chance to either maintain a lead or get momentum back, whatever it may be.”Kessel has three points in each of his past three games and Crosby has four straight games with multiple points for Pittsburgh Youth Jordan Weal Jersey , which tied its season high with its fourth straight road win.Mikko Koivu scored for the first time in 15 games and Zach Parise added his 17th goal of the season for the Wild. Devan Dubnyk made 29 saves for Minnesota, which has lost eight of its past 11 games.“It was another pretty good effort by us,” Dubnyk said. “Obviously, it gets old. We’re all competitive and used to winning in here, so you don’t want to sit here and say over and over that we played well and had chances and made a good effort. But that’s the case.”The Wild snapped a five-game losing streak on Saturday at Winnipeg and then opened the scoring against the Penguins.Koivu started a rush from his defensive zone and got a pass from Nino Niederreiter in the slot, sending a quick shot past DeSmith. It was the first power-play goal allowed by Pittsburgh in six games. They had killed 14 straight short-handed situations.It was Koivu’s 59th career power-play goal, tied with Marian Gaborik for most in franchise history.Given their first power-play, the Penguins tied the game with Kessel sending a pass through defenseman Ryan Suter’s legs to Crosby alone on the back side for an easy tap-in goal.It was the fifth-straight goal on the power-play for Pittsburgh, which was 4 of 4 in a 6-1 win against St. Louis on Saturday. Crosby has 10 points in the past four games.Kessel scored his 17th goal of the season with 21 seconds left in the first period when his shot from the side deflected off Suter’s stick past Dubnyk.“We have given them a couple in the two games,” Wild coach Bruce Boudreau said. “There’s no ifs ands or buts on that. It’s very frustrating. It’s a frustrating theme of the way we don’t succeed sometimes.”Riley Sheahan scored in the second period for the Penguins and DeSmith was it his best in the period. Minnesota had 13 shots in a scoreless second Scott Laughton Jersey , including several in which DeSmith made highlight saves.“It’s all about, as a goaltender, kind of managing in the game and knowing when they’re pressing and doing what you can to hold them off until your team finds a way to push back and respond,” DeSmith said. “Luckily, I was able to do that a little bit during the second period and we got some guys who did a great job finishing their chances tonight.”NOTES: Pittsburgh F Bryan Rust missed his first game of the season with a lower-body injury he sustained in the previous game against St. Louis. He’s considered day-to-day. Zach Aston-Reese took Rust’s spot on Sidney Crosby’s line. … Penguins D Olli Maatta was a game-time decision with a lower-body injury but was in the lineup. Jamie Oleksiak was a healthy scratch for the second straight game after missing three games with an injury. … Minnesota D Nick Seeler (upper-body injury) skated before the game and coach Bruce Boudreau said Seeler could return on the team’s upcoming four-game road trip. … Crosby became just the second player in Pittsburgh history to play in 900 games. Mario Lemieux is the all-time leader in games played with 915.UP NEXTPenguins: Face the New York Rangers on Wednesday.Wild: Play Thursday in Toronto.
