Six score for Wild in win against Canadiens

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Six Minnesota Wild scored, and Devan Dubnyk made 28 saves in a 6-3 win against the Montreal Canadiens at Xcel Energy Center on Thursday.
Matt Cullen had a goal and an assist, and Mikko Koivu and Matt Dumba each had two assists for Minnesota (5-4-2), which has won three of its past four games. Nino Niederreiter, Tyler Ennis, Ryan Suter, Jared Spurgeon and Marcus Foligno each scored for the Wild.

WATCH: [All Canadiens vs. Wild highlights]
"It's early in the season. We are still finding our way as a group," said Cullen, who played his 1,500th NHL game and turned 41. "We see what we need to do in order to be successful, and that's something for us to continue to build on. I think as a group we'd all admit that we have a long ways to go and there's a lot of growth to be done here.
"It's a big win at home. It's two points early in the season that we need."
Brendan Gallagher scored two goals for the Canadiens (4-8-1), who lost for the first time in three games. Carey Price allowed five goals on 26 shots.
Cullen and Niederreiter scored 10 seconds apart in a three-goal first period for the Wild.

Cullen controlled the rebound of a Mike Reilly shot and slipped the puck past Price at 4:46 to give Minnesota a 1-0 lead. It was his first goal of the season.
Niederreiter scored at 4:56 for a 2-0 lead when he got his stick on a shot from the right point by Dumba, who was benched by coach Bruce Boudreau the final 19:17 of a 2-1 loss against the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday after his turnover in the third period led to Nikolaj Ehlers' game-winning goal.
"I was looking forward to [this game] ever since the last one," Dumba said. "I wanted to redeem myself and be better for my teammates. It's tough, but everyone at some point in their life wishes they can go back in that time machine, but you can't.
"All [I] can focus on was tonight and being prepared for that. I felt I did a good job of that, and I want to carry it into Saturday and into the road games [next week] too."
Ennis scored his 100th NHL goal off a pass from Cullen at 15:51 to make it 3-0.
Suter one-timed a pass from Koivu past Price to make it 4-0 at 12:09 of the second period.
Gallagher scored at 13:09 of the second to cut the Wild lead to 4-1.

Spurgeon scored to make it 5-1 with a power-play goal 34 seconds into the third period. His nine points (two goals, seven assists) lead the Wild.
It was Minnesota's first power-play goal in 20 attempts over five games.
"We tried not to push things or force plays," Spurgeon said. "We knew we had to just keep with it and keep putting pucks to the net."
Andrew Shaw beat Dubnyk off a pass from Phillip Danault to make it 5-2 at 9:14, and Gallagher scored his second of the game at 14:47 to make it 5-3.
Gallagher has three goals and two assists during a three-game point streak.
"To be honest, I'm not thinking about [my personal success] right now," Gallagher said. "It's disappointing with what's happened here at the start of the year. I think we just want to win some hockey games. I'd rather have the record flip and not have to put a puck in the net right now."
Foligno scored into the empty net at 18:05 to make it 6-3.
Price is 3-7-1 with a 3.77 goals-against average and .877 save percentage. He has allowed four or more goals in seven of 11 starts.
"I'm just worried about trying to stop pucks," Price said. "That's always been what I've been trying to do and just got to find a way to do it. Just [have to] try and find a way to get through it."

Goal of the game

Cullen scoring off a rebound at 4:46 of the first period.

Save of the game

Dubnyk stopping Danault's wrist shot at 18:18 of the second period.

Highlight of the game

Suter's goal on a one-timer at 12:09 of the second period.

They said it

"I think at the end of the day, we all know that Carey [Price] is a much better goaltender than he's showing right now. The only thing he can do, and we can do, is keep working with him, and him working hard and find his groove again, because he's definitely the key to us getting back into the race here and being a playoff contender." -- Canadiens coach Claude Julien
"I thought that was [Matt Dumba's] best game of the year. He shot the puck. He played a simple game. And when he plays a simple game, his skills come through." -- Wild coach Bruce Boudreau

Need to know

Danault has six points (two goals, four assists) in the past three games. ... Each team had 16 hits. ... Montreal won 62 percent of face-offs. Torrey Mitchell won all five of his draws, and Tomas Plekanec was 11-for-14 (79 percent).

What's next

Canadiens: At the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; SN, TVA Sports, NHL.TV)
Wild: Host the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; FS-N, WGN, NHL.TV)