Parise helps Wild top Rangers, end five-game losing streak

NEW YORK -- The Minnesota Wild ended a five-game losing streak and moved into a Stanley Cup Playoff position by defeating the New York Rangers 4-1 at Madison Square Garden on Thursday.

The Wild (28-27-6) were 0-4-1 in their previous five games. They have 62 points and hold the second wild card into the playoffs from the Western Conference.
They dropped out of a wild card position Wednesday, when both the Chicago Blackhawks and Colorado Avalanche won to pass them. The Avalanche and Blackhawks, who play against each other in Chicago on Friday, each have 61 points.
WATCH: [All Wild vs. Rangers highlights]
"We've been searching for [a win] for a while," Wild forward Zach Parise said. "The teams behind us have been winning. We haven't been winning. I think that does put us back in the wild card, so move forward."
Parise had a goal and an assist, Jared Spurgeon, Mikael Granlund and Jordan Greenway scored, and Ryan Donato had two assists in his first game with the Wild after he was acquired in a trade with the Boston Bruins on Wednesday.
Devan Dubnyk made 33 saves, including five during a four-minute penalty kill midway through the third period when the Wild were protecting a 3-1 lead.

Minnesota was shut out in its previous two games and allowed seven power-play goals in the five-game losing streak.
"We really needed this one," Granlund said. "The feeling in the locker room, it's all different after you win a hockey game and hopefully we can build on this to something."
Pavel Buchnevich scored, and Henrik Lundqvist made 31 saves for the Rangers (26-26-8), who are 10 points behind the Carolina Hurricanes for the second wild card from the East.

New York played with five defensemen for the final two periods after Adam McQuaid didn't return because of precautionary reasons related to an upper-body injury, coach David Quinn said.
McQuaid is in the final year of a four-year contract he signed with the Bruins and could be traded before the 2019 NHL Trade Deadline on Monday at 3 p.m. ET.
"He's actually fine," Quinn said. "Just talked to the trainers, probably could have gone back in but for precautionary reasons we didn't."
Spurgeon gave the Wild a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal at 15:04 of the first period. The goal was Minnesota's first in eight periods and ended a drought of 171:03.

The Wild thought they scored again less than a minute later, but Joel Eriksson Ek's goal was overturned after a video review initiated by the Rangers determined he was offside prior to scoring.
Buchnevich made it 1-1 with a power-play goal at 5:06 of the second period.
Granlund gave Minnesota a 2-1 lead less than three minutes later, scoring while falling down off a rebound of Greg Pateryn's shot at 8:41. He put the puck into the top right corner.
"I was trying to put it right there and luckily it went there," Granlund said.

Parise capitalized on a Rangers defensive zone giveaway to make it 3-1 at 11:03 of the third period.
The puck came to him between the circles after Rangers defenseman Brady Skjei lost it when he appeared to be tripped by Wild forward Eric Staal. There was no whistle and Parise went to his backhand to beat Lundqvist.
"I thought for sure that we were going to be short[handed] after that," Parise said. "Fortunately we weren't, and we didn't really look back from that point."
The Rangers were upset Staal wasn't called for tripping, but Quinn didn't blame it for the loss.
"The way we played, I don't think it made a difference," he said.
The Wild then killed the four-minute double minor on Donato for high sticking Jimmy Vesey with 7:33 remaining. Greenway scored into an empty net with 2:37 left for the 4-1 final.

They said it

"It's just one win, but we had to go through a little bit of adversity there just to get it. When your penalty killing is struggling and then they get a double minor with six minutes to go in the game, you're wondering, 'Uh oh.' A couple good breaks here and there. We talked about it the other day, puck luck, you need a little bit of it sometimes. I thought we had a little more of it than they did." -- Wild coach Bruce Boudreau
"Not our best effort, maybe. They played like a team that is kind of looking for that good feeling. You can kind of see it, and we kind of gave it to them." -- Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist

Need to know

Dubnyk is 8-3-1 with a 2.31 goals-against average and .924 save percentage in his past 12 starts on the road. … Staal had two assists for his 225th NHL career multipoint game and 10th this season. … Buchnevich has five points (three goals, two assists) in the past five games.

What's next

Wild:At the Detroit Red Wings on Friday (7:30 p.m. ET; NHLN, FS-D, FS-WI, FS-N+, NHL.TV)
Rangers: Host the New Jersey Devils on Saturday (1 p.m. ET; ESPN+, MSG, MSG+, NHL.TV)