Minnesota Wild: Dubnyk Turns Things Around on The Road

The Minnesota Wild just capped off a very strong road trip last night in Buffalo with excellent performances up and down the lineup. Perhaps the best performance might be their goaltender Devan Dubnyk who posted two shutouts and 2-0-1 record.

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It’s was a strong road trip for the Minnesota Wild as they finished 2-1-1 on a quick tour of the tristate area. Expect for a small hiccup in Brooklyn against the Islanders, the Wild played solid hockey and walked away from four games on the road with the best record in the Western Conference. There were a lot of great individual performances went into this strong performance, but perhaps the biggest was performance of the Wild backstop Devan Dubnyk.

Dubs may have lost the first game of the trip in New Jersey 2-1 in OT, but he still had a very strong game. He didn’t play the next night against the Isles in that shaky lopsided 6-3 loss. In the end though it was the last two games that really cemented Dubs’ great road trip as he shutout the Bruins and Sabres in successive games.

His stat line for the trip was an impressive 0.66 GAA and a stingy 0.98 save percentage. Not too bad considering before that Dubs was holding steady at a below average 2.67 GAA and 0.87 save percentage.

Oct 25, 2016; Boston, MA, USA; Minnesota Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk (40) makes a save as Boston Bruins right wing David Pastrnak (88) looks for the rebound during the third period of the Minnesota Wild /

Sure two shutouts in a row is a not everyday occurrence and the probability of a third might be low, but you’ve got like what you’ve seen. They always say that shutouts are a team effort and if that’s a reflection of the Wild’s defense two in a row is a great reflection. Also add in that Jared Spurgeon was out of the defensive lineup and it makes it even more impressive that they could blank two teams in a row like that.

I’m also taking this as a good sign because Dubnyk is a goaltender who has shown in the past that he seems to be able build on good performance. When he plays confidently like this it usually means that he’s seeing the puck well and will go on a tear. Think about when he first came to the Wild, all it took was a little momentum for him to ride to the top of the league.

He explained his success after the Buffalo game “It’s about finding the puck and being patient. That has a lot to do with trusting the guys in front of me and trusting what’s going on and who’s covered and what I need to worry about. The guys have done a great job for me so far on allowing me to do my job. It makes it fun to play.” That’s a good thing to hear from your goaltender.