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Dumba’s 2 goals not enough as Wild fall 3-2 to Oilers

ST. PAUL — Wild coach Bruce Boudreau knew the Edmonton Oilers were going to come out firing on Saturday afternoon, Dec. 16, at the Xcel Energy Center, especially considering they were shutout in their previous game despite firing 46 shots on goal.

“We are going to have to be great defensively against them,” Boudreau said. “I really worry about teams that struggle the night before. I mean, we’ve had this where we seem to play a team that got shut out the night before, and every time they do that, they come in, and they go, they start scoring again.”

He was right as the Wild surrendered a trio of goals in a hard-fought 3-2 loss to the Oilers.

Matt Dumba tried his best to keep the Wild in it with a pair of goals, though it wasn’t enough.

It marked the first loss in about a week and a half for the Wild, who are still teetering on the cut line in the Western Conference playoff race.

After a scoreless first period, Oilers center Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored a shorthanded goal midway through the second period to give his team the lead.

That came a few seconds after Mikko Koivu was denied front point-blank range. He also drilled the post with a nearly perfect redirection on the very next shift.

Those two plays perfectly encapsulated Koivu’s recent struggles offensively, as he’s now gone 23 games without a goal and 10 games without a point.

Nonetheless, the Wild pulled later in the second period when Dumba fired a slap shot from the high slot after a slick pass from Mikael Granlund.

Oilers winger Milan Lucic helped his team regain the lead a few minutes later when he collected a bouncing puck in the slot and beat Alex Stalock with a well-placed shot.

Oilers winger Jesse Puljujarvi extended the lead in the third period on a rebound from in close after Stalock made an incredible pad save to deny the initial shot.

Dumba was back at it late in the third period with another one-timer, this time from Chris Stewart, to cut into the deficit, and make for an interesting final five minutes of the game.

In the end, though, the Wild couldn’t net the equalizer.

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