Staal breaks out of slump, Wild blank Oilers 3-0

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Eric Staal broke out of an early slump with two goals and an assist, and the Minnesota Wild beat the Edmonton Oilers 3-0 Tuesday night.

Brad Hunt also scored for the Wild, who may be without goaltender Devan Dubnyk for a while. Dubnyk was upended early in the second period after Minnesota’s Ryan Donato fell to the ice while battling the Oilers’ Brandon Manning. Dubnyk tried to leap over both sliding players, but fell hard on his backside and appeared to hit the back of his head on the ice.

Playing his 300th game with the Wild, Dubnyk was checked by a trainer before exiting after making nine saves. Alex Stalock came on and finished with 16 saves.

Edmonton is 2-2-1 in its past five games after opening the season with five straight wins. The Oilers, shut out at Winnipeg on Sunday, have gone 143:23 without goal.

After a five-point night last Wednesday against Philadelphia gave him 17 points in the first seven games, Connor McDavid has gone three straight without a point for the first time since Dec. 29, 2017, to Jan. 2, 2018. He finished with two shots on goal.

Staal had two assists in Minnesota’s first eight games.

He exceeded that point total in just over five minutes of the first period when Minnesota built a 3-0 lead, its first time this season scoring three goals in a period.

Staal scored his first of the season, putting home a rebound of Jordan Greenway‘s shot midway through the period. In his 16th season, Staal’s previous goal-less drought to start the season was six games.

Seventy-five seconds later, Staal converted a rebound of Carson Soucy‘s blast. Soucy got an assist for his first point in 10 career games. Greenway was crushed by Josh Archibald as he poked the puck back to Soucy, went to the locker room and did not return.

Hunt, a defenseman, scored his fourth on a power play four minutes later. Staal got the second assist. It was the first power-play goal allowed on the road by Edmonton in 16 attempts.

NOTES: Edmonton entered with a league-best 38.5 percent on the power play. The Oilers finished 0 for 2. … Wild RW Mats Zuccarello was activated off injured reserve after missing four games with a lower-body injury. C Joel Eriksson Ek (lower-body injury) was placed on IR. … Minnesota is 24-6-1 in the last 31 home games against Edmonton since Feb. 25, 2007.

UP NEXT

Oilers: Host Washington on Thursday night.

Wild: At Nashville on Thursday night.