Wild win 5-2 over Lightning
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Zach Parise scored his first goal of the season and the Minnesota Wild beat the suddenly sputtering Tampa Bay Lightning 5-2 on Saturday night.
Jared Spurgeon, Nate Prosser, Marcus Foligno and Jason Zucker also scored for Minnesota, playing its first game after a five-day break. Matt Cullen had an assist for his 700th career point.
Brayden Point scored twice for the NHL-leading Lightning, who lost a season-high third straight.
Playing the first of eight straight road games around next weekend’s All-Star Game, the Lightning got 30 saves from Andrei Vasilevskiy. He has allowed 23 goals in his past five starts.
Tampa Bay, which has a league-best 65 points, lost 5-1 to Calgary before its bye week and 4-1 to Vegas in its first game back Thursday — both at home.
Minnesota continued its dominance at Xcel Energy Center. The Wild are 6-0-2 at home since Dec. 27, outscoring opponents 32-16.
In his eighth game back after microdiscectomy surgery in October, Parise gave the Wild a 2-0 lead late in the first period by tipping in Ryan Suter’s shot. Tampa Bay unsuccessfully challenged the call, claiming goaltender interference.
Spurgeon scored three seconds into a power play earlier in the first.
Prosser precisely put the puck between Vasilevskiy and the post for a 3-0 lead seven minutes into the second, but Point scored late to get the Lightning within two.
Point scored on a two-man advantage in the third to make it 4-2, a goal upheld after the Wild challenged for goaltender interference.
Cullen, who assisted on Foligno’s goal early in the third to make it 4-1, has 252 goals and 448 assists during his 20-season career.
NOTES: Wild G Devan Dubnyk made 21 saves and is 6-1-1 in eight games since missing six with a lower-body injury. He is 9-0-2 at home since Nov. 14. … Tampa Bay has two wins all-time in Minnesota, the least amount of road wins against a single team. Its last one was April 2, 2011.
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