Bruce Boudreau did not want a big deal made about his 500th career win as an NHL coach. With a tightening playoff race, his Minnesota Wild have other things to worry about.
So the Wild made sure to take care of business against the Western Conference’s top team before acknowledging their coach’s milestone.
“That’s a lot of wins,” Devan Dubnyk said after making 19 saves in Minnesota’s 4-1 win against the Nashville Predators. “He’s had a ton of success everywhere he’s went.”
Photo: AP
In 837 games, Boudreau became the second-fastest NHL coach to win 500 games — Scotty Bowman did it in 825. Not that Boudreau was interested in talking about it.
“I think in the summer it’ll be when I’m with family, that’ll be pretty cool, but right now let’s focus on the game and the team,” he said.
Jason Zucker scored his 30th goal and added an assist for the Wild. Joel Eriksson Ek, Nino Niederreiter and Zach Parise also scored as Minnesota overcame a slow first period to outwork the Predators and hand them a second straight loss.
“It’s going to come down to the wire for sure, so we need to take these wins and run with them,” Zucker said.
The Predators also saw their franchise-record nine-game road winning streak stopped.
DEVILS 2, LIGHTNING 1
While Taylor Hall and Nico Hischier have been getting much of the credit for New Jersey’s surprising playoff push, goaltender Keith Kinkaid has been the one carrying the Devils back to the post-season the past two weeks.
Kinkaid on Saturday night made 35 saves and the Devils took another major step toward making the playoffs for the first time since 2012 with a 2-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Hischier and Kyle Palmieri scored for New Jersey, who have elevated their playoff chances with wins in five of seven games.
“Keith has been a difference-maker,” Devils coach John Hynes said of Kinkaid, who had 75 saves the past two nights. “He has really come in and played well. He has made key saves at key times”
Kinkaid is 11-3 in his past 14 decisions since taking over the No. 1 goaltender’s job after Cory Schneider was hurt in late January and kept it after Schneider returned.
Coupled with Florida’s come-from-behind win over Arizona, the Devils are three points ahead of the Panthers in the race for the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference with seven games left in the regular season. Florida has two games in hand.
In Saturday’s other games, it was:
‧ Avalanche 2, Golden Knights 1
‧ Sharks 5, Flames 1
‧ Rangers 5, Sabres 1
‧ Panthers 4, Coyotes 2
‧ Maple Leafs 4, Red Wings 3
‧ Capitals 6, Canadiens 4
‧ Blues 2, Blue Jackets 1
‧ Hurricanes 5, Senators 2
‧ Blackhawks 3, Islanders 1
‧ Oilers 3, Kings 2
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