LAS VEGAS — Charlie Coyle scored his second game-winning goal of the season with 5:31 remaining to lift the Minnesota Wild past the Vegas Golden Knights 4-2 on Monday.
With the win, the Wild moved past Colorado and Vancouver into the top wild-card slot in the Western Conference. Minnesota takes on Colorado on Wednesday, the final game before the All-Star break for both teams.
With the puck was loose in front of the net, Jared Spurgeon sent a perfect pass to Coyle, who beat Vegas goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury with a high shot that put the Wild in front.
Marcos Foligno, Eric Staal and Mikko Koivu also scored for the Wild. Devan Dubnyk made 30 saves and has stopped 64 of 67 shots in his last three games.
Alex Tuch and Max Pacioretty scored for the Golden Knights.
Fleury, who leads the league with 44 starts, 27 victories and six shutouts this season, made 18 saves for Vegas. The Golden Knights are 15-6-3 since the start of December, and 6-3-0 in 2019.
The loss kept Vegas in third place in the Pacific Division, behind first-place Calgary and San Jose.
Taking advantage on the power play, against the league’s second-best penalty kill, Vegas’ Jonathan Marchessault drove into the offensive zone and delayed just enough to draw Dubnyk to his left before feeding Tuch, who scored to give Vegas a 1-0 lead.
The Wild answered with two second-period goals in a span of 1:13. Foligno took a pass from Joel Eriksson Ek and sent a shot past Fleury, and then Staal followed with a punch-in from in front of the net.
Vegas tied the game when Paul Stastny found USA Hockey linemate Pacioretty, whose shot beat Dubnyk between the pads.
Koivu’s empty-net goal with 13 seconds left was the 200th goal of his career.
NOTES: Vegas D Colin Miller had two assists, and has four in his first two games back after missing 13 games. … Marchessault is two assists shy of 100 in his career. … Wild C Matt Hendricks was a healthy scratch, and remains one game shy of playing in the 600th of his career. … Minnesota W Jason Zucker is a Las Vegas native.
UP NEXT
Minnesota: At Colorado on Wednesday.
Golden Knights: Host Nashville on Wednesday.
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W.G. Ramirez, The Associated Press