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Wild pull away from Oilers

Feb 23, 2011 - 4:34 AM St. Paul, MN (Sports Network) - Pierre-Marc Bouchard had a goal and two assists, as the Minnesota Wild scored three times in the third period to defeat the Edmonton Oilers, 4-1, at Xcel Energy Center.

Kyle Brodziak, Martin Havlat and Jared Spurgeon also tallied for the Wild, who have won 15 straight against Edmonton in Minnesota and have not lost on home ice to the Oilers since January 16, 2007. The Wild had dropped three of four coming into the contest.

Niklas Backstrom turned aside 20-of-21 shots to pick up the victory.

Kurtis Foster accounted for the lone goal for Edmonton, which had a three-game winning streak halted and has lost 11 of its last 14 on the road. Nikolai Khabibulin made 19 saves in defeat.

"We've got to make a conscious effort to play a little more north, south and get the grinding goals ourselves," Oilers head coach Tom Renney said.

Deadlocked at 1-1 after 40 minutes, Brodziak took a pass from Nick Schultz in the slot and roofed a backhander just under the crossbar to put Minnesota ahead 1:28 into the third.

Spurgeon recorded his first career goal on a slap shot from the right circle at 6:33 to put the Wild up by two, then after killing off a 5-on-3, Bouchard made it a 4-1 game with a highlight reel tally.

The center took a long pass from Cal Clutterbuck at the Oilers' blueline skated in on a breakaway, slowed down, then put a backhander home to give the hosts a three-goal cushion with 5:27 remaining.

"From the blue line I saw one of their defenseman fall down, so I knew I had time to make that move," Bouchard said. "I'm pretty glad it worked."

After a scoreless first period, Havlat got behind the defense and fired a wrist shot between the pads of Khabibulin at 9:23 of the second period.

Foster tied things with 2:23 remaining in the second when the former Minnesota defenseman jumped up on a 3-on-2 rush and beat Backstrom with a wrister on the glove side, and it stayed 1-1 after two.

Game Notes

Minnesota captain Mikko Koivu is out indefinitely with a broken finger...Edmonton defenseman Taylor Chorney left after the second period with a right knee injury.