Matt Dumba lead Minnesota Wild in preseason win

Alas, the Wild’s preseason schedule is halfway over.

With a 4-3 win over the Winnipeg Jets, the Wild improved to 1-1-1 in the (meaningless) regular season.

The story from Saturday’s victory at Xcel Energy Center (the first game in St. Paul since the Blackhawks eliminated the Wild in Game 6 last season) was the Wild’s success on the power play.

They went 3-for-4 with the man advantage, recording 10 of their 24 shots during the power play, a noticeable difference from last season.

“You always want to shoot,” Zach Parise said. “But tonight I just thought we had more of an attack the net mindset. When they tried to overload in the corner and we got it free, we took it right to the net.”

Matt Dumba was great on the power play and made a strong move around a defenseman to set up Nino Niederreiter’s power play goal.

“That’s a heck of a play right there,” coach Mike Yeo said of Dumba’s move. “What you like is the recognition that there’s an opportunity there and you want that attack mentality. When you get a bit of a chance, that’s when you have to be ready to attack and that was a strong move that we saw there.”

Dumba also threw his body around and made a couple big hits.

“I think that’s a sign that he’s going out there with the mindset that he wants to show us what he can do and that’s what you want,” Yeo said. “It’s not an easy situation. These guys know they’re under the microscope and every mistake is being analyzed. So to play the game without any fear, I give him a lot of credit for. He’s played two strong games in a row for us.”

via Minnesota Wild beat Winnipeg Jets 4-3 in preseason game.