Wild defeat Rangers, gain in Western wild-card race

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- The Minnesota Wild ended a three-game losing streak and gained in the Western Conference wild-card race with a 5-2 win against the New York Rangers at Xcel Energy Center on Saturday.

Ryan Donato scored two goals, and Devan Dubnyk made 26 saves for the Wild (34-30-8), who are two points behind the Arizona Coyotes for the second Western wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
"We knew we really had to win this one," Donato said. "I think the guys did a great job of doing what the coaches preached, all the staff preached, and hopefully we continue to ride that."
WATCH: [All Rangers vs. Wild highlights]
Henrik Lundqvist made 41 saves, and Mika Zibanejad and Pavel Buchnevich scored for the Rangers (28-31-13), who have lost four straight games and are 1-5-5 in their past 11. New York was coming off a 5-1 loss at the Calgary Flames on Friday.
"Winning makes everything easier. Losing makes everything tougher," Lundqvist said. "... I'm disappointed. We're not winning. I feel like we're not really understanding how we have to play to have success."
Donato scored off a pass from Pontus Aberg on a 2-on-1 rush to give the Wild a 1-0 lead at 4:40 of the first period.

Zibanejad tied it 1-1 at 6:00 with a shot from the right corner that went in off Dubnyk. It was his NHL career-high 28th goal, one more than he had last season.
"I'll reflect on all that stuff at the end of the year," Zibanejad said. "Right now, it doesn't matter. We lost."
Donato deflected a wrist shot by Luke Kunin at 16:05 to put Minnesota ahead 2-1.
Eric Staal scored to make it 3-1 at 4:51 of the second period when his pass for Zach Parise went in off New York defenseman Neal Pionk's stick. It was his 20th goal.
"Obviously, it's desperate times," Staal said. "We need points. We need wins. Tonight was a huge game for us. … We wanted to make sure we jumped on them and were aggressive and assertive."

Jared Spurgeon scored with a one-timer from the left face-off circle on the power play at 6:06 of the third period to make it 4-1.
Buchnevich made it 4-2 at 8:56 when he beat Dubnyk five-hole.
JT Brown scored an empty-net goal at 17:25 for the 5-2 final.
"You always hope [you can carry the momentum forward], I guess," Wild coach Bruce Boudreau said. "But right now, it's just one game at a time. We had a nice win today. Now we want to get the guys some rest. We've got an afternoon game basically tomorrow (against the New York Islanders)."

They said it

"Before you learn how to win, you've got to learn not to lose. Give [the Wild] a lot of credit. I thought they played well, they were fast, they were hard on pucks. You could see there was a tenacity to their game. Obviously, their season is on the line, they're fighting for a playoff spot. So you don't want to discredit your opponent, they caused us a lot of problems, but I also thought we caused our own problems a lot of times. I think it's a little bit of a balancing act in that end. We've just got to continue to understand that before we learn how to win, we have to learn not to lose." -- Rangers coach David Quinn
"The energy was there. It seemed like everyone was on their toes tonight and wanted to anticipate the play. It's fun when you're involved and kind of a playoff atmosphere like tonight was, and we know how crucial points are now. Tonight was a big win." -- Wild forward Marcus Foligno

Need to know

Rangers defenseman Tony DeAngelo had an assist on Buchnevich's goal. He has 13 assists in his past 16 games and 15 in his past 20. ... Zibanejad is the first Rangers center to score at least 28 goals in a season since Eric Lindros had 37 in 2001-02. ... Donato has 11 points (four goals, seven assists) in 12 games with the Wild since being acquired in a trade from the Boston Bruins on Feb. 20. ... Minnesota forward Kevin Fiala got his 100th NHL point with an assist on Spurgeon's goal. ... Staal has scored at least 20 goals in 12 of his 14 full NHL seasons. ... The Wild won at home for the first time since Feb. 24, a 2-1 overtime victory against the St. Louis Blues. They were 0-2-1 since.

What's next

Rangers: Host the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; MSG, FS-D, NHL.TV)
Wild: Host the New York Islanders on Sunday (6 p.m. ET; ESPN+, FS-N, MSG, NHL.TV)