Die Nacktbar » right to Jokinen for the easy putback.Mikael Granl

ST. PAUL Jordan Schroeder Jersey Womens , Minn. (AP) The Minnesota Wild are fighting to stay in the playoff hunt. Their opponent Thursday night, the Arizona Coyotes, are as far outside of the playoff picture as possible.That might not have been readily apparent based on the result at Xcel Energy Center.Clayton Keller scored Arizona’s fourth straight goal at 3:55 of overtime to give the Coyotes a 4-3 comeback victory. Arizona snapped a four-game losing streak.”That was a good, gutsy win,” Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet said. ”We picked up the pace, we had puck possession and guys started believing what we were doing out there.”The 19-year-old Keller also had the winner Dec. 22 against Washington.Nick Cousins scored twice for Arizona, which entered the game with the worst record in the NHL. Cousins’ second goal tied it with 18.3 seconds remaining in regulation after Arizona pulled goalie Antti Raanta for an extra attacker.”With the goalie pulled anything can happen, so it was nice to get one there,” Cousins said. ”I think they were on their heels there in the third period and that was probably one of our better periods of the season.”Kevin Connaughton also scored for Arizona, and Raanta stopped 25 shots.Though Minnesota scored the first three goals, the Wild admitted after the game it didn’t feel like a 3-0 lead. Minnesota was outshot through two periods and was sloppy on both ends of the ice.”I don’t know how to explain it. It shouldn’t happen. It can’t happen,” said Wild forward Zach Parise. ”Right now in the race that we’re in and that we’re going to be in for the rest of the year, it’s a tough point to lose.”Eric Staal, Matt Cullen and Mike Reilly scored to give Minnesota a 3-0 lead Matt Calvert Jersey Womens , and Devan Dubnyk made 37 saves.Staal opened the scoring with 2:47 to play in the first period with his team-leading 24th goal. Staal fired a pass from Jared Spurgeon top shelf past Raanta.Cullen, the Wild’s 41-year-old forward, made it 2-0 early in the second period on a breakaway.The Wild were without defenseman Jonas Brodin on Thursday after Brodin suffered a broken hand Tuesday against St. Louis. In Brodin’s absences, Minnesota’s young defenseman such as Reilly and Gustav Olofsson will have a chance to gain some additional ice time.Reilly took advantage Thursday, scoring his first goal of the season and just the third of his NHL career. Reilly grabbed a loose puck out of the air and set it on the ice before firing from the faceoff circle past Raanta.Arizona clawed back with three unanswered goals in regulation. Cousins buried a cross-ice pass from Alex Goligoski for the Coyotes’ first goal midway through the second period. Connaughton’s goal 8:02 into the third made it a one-goal game.The Coyotes came to St. Paul with just 12 wins on the season, while Minnesota’s 27 wins and 59 points had the Wild hovering on the cusp of the top eight spots in the Western Conference.Thursday’s overtime loss was a point the Wild felt they should have had.”That’s not good enough. Pretty simple. That was the message after the game and the message from here on in,” said Wild coach Bruce Boudreau. ”You’re fighting for your playoff lives and you come up and you blow a 3-0 lead to a team that isn’t going to be in the playoffs. You can’t be successful if you do that.”NOTES: Minnesota made a trade Thursday, acquiring defenseman Viktor Loov from the New Jersey Devils. The Wild sent forwards Christoph Bertschy and Mario Lucia to New Jersey in exchange for Loov. … Coyotes D Oliver Ekman-Larsson was a minus-1 in Thursday’s win and is now a league-worst minus-41 on the season. … Arizona D Luke Schenn and F Christian Fischer were both scratched Thursday for just the third time each this year.UP NEXTWild: Host Chicago on Saturday night.Coyotes: Host Flyers on Saturday night. VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) Eric Staal is having the type of scoring surge where it seems the puck finds its way into the net whenever he shoots.The Minnesota center scored the go-ahead goal in the second period and the Wild surged past the Vancouver Canucks 5-2 on Friday night.Staal has 11 goals in his last nine games, giving him 37 for the season – just three behind Washington’s Alex Ovechkin for the league lead.”A lot of people say, `Look how lucky he is,”’ Wild coach Bruce Boudreau said. ”But in the end, it’s not luck. The good players do that.”Zach Parise, Matt Cullen Cale Makar Jersey Womens , Marcus Foligno and Charlie Coyle -with an empty-netter – also scored for the Wild, who have won three straight and eight of their past 10. Minnesota leads Dallas by three points for third in the Central Division and trails Winnipeg by six points for second.Devan Dubnyk made 30 saves for Minnesota.The 41-year-old Cullen, the oldest active player in the NHL, had a goal and an assist – and has scored five of his 10 goals this season in the past 10 games. The Wild are currently headed for the playoffs, where the former Pittsburgh Penguins star has a chance to reach his third straight Stanley Cup final.”I get excited about what lies in front when the games get big and everything becomes more magnified and more important,” Cullen said. ”That’s why I still play. I do love this time of year.”Michael Del Zotto and Jussi Jokinen scored for the Canucks, who wrapped up a five-game homestand with a 1-2-2 record. Anders Nilsson finished with 31 saves.”It’s not hard to have a better effort than we had last game. That was terrible,” said Del Zotto, referring to a 2-1 loss to Arizona on Wednesday. ”We talked about it all year, we preach consistently and our effort and compete level has to be there every night.”The first-period scoring all happened in the first 1:42. Vancouver tallied 53 seconds in when Del Zotto’s hard wrist shot from the face-off circle slipped through Dubnyk’s pads, allowing the defenseman to collect his rebound and score on a wraparound.Parise was next, gaining control of a loose puck at the side of the Vancouver net and then deftly lifting it behind Nilsson’s shoulder to quiet the crowd.After Cullen missed on an easy goal with Nilsson out of position, Canucks forward Sam Gagner had a goal waved off for kicking.Nilsson robbed Cullen early in the second with a great glove save, but Cullen finally got his goal at 2:46 Riley Nash Jersey Womens , when Tyler Ennis made a nice cross-ice pass to Cullen streaking through the slot.Jokinen scored in his second straight game to make it 2-2 in the second. A shot by Erik Gudbranson rebounded right to Jokinen for the easy putback.Mikael Granlund’s wrist shot from a hard angle appeared to have bounced off Troy Stecher’s skate and in to make it 3-2. Staal, who was tied up with Stecher in the crease, was credited with the goal.In the third, Dubnyk kicked out a pad to deny Jokinen in the slot, then had some luck when a puck trickled through his pads only to hit the post before defenseman Matt Dumba cleared it.After Coyle scored an empty-netter with 43 seconds left, Foligno banged in a rebound to put the game away.”It wasn’t good enough, but it was better,” Vancouver’s Henrik Sedin said. ”I thought that we wanted to be part of this game. Last game, I thought we stepped on the ice and thought it was going to be an easy game. Tonight, we battled.”NOTES: Defenseman Ben Hutton and forward Nikolay Goldobin were healthy scratches for Vancouver.UP NEXT:Wild: at Edmonton on Saturday night.Canucks: at Arizona on Sunday night.