The Minnesota Wild (42-24-8) beat the visiting Nashville Predators (48-16-10) 4-1 Saturday night at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. The win was head coach Bruce Boudreau's 500th career victory.

Nashville scored the only goal of the first period and held the lead early in the second period, before the Wild finally got on the board with a goal by Joel Erickson Ek (5), followed by another by Nino Niederreiter (18) -- giving Minnesota a 2-1 lead after two. Jason Zucker (30) scored early in the third, and Zach Parise (10) tallied an empty-netter to seal the win for the Wild.

The Wild outshot the Predators 30-20, with Minnesota goaltender Devan Dubnyk making 29 saves.

 

Listen_LOON
loading...

With just eight regular season games left, the Wild cling to third place in the division, eight points behind second place Winnipeg, and just two ahead of Colorado.

NHL Central Division Standings

NHL.com
NHL.com
loading...

The Wild host the Boston Bruins tonight at the Xcel Energy center. The puck drops at 6:30 PM CT (TV: NBCSN, Radio: AM 1240 WJON).

 

More From 103.7 The Loon