Wild blank Coyotes

SAINT PAUL - Minnesota Wild goalie Darcy Kuemper delivered his third shutout in four starts on Thursday, blanking the Arizona Coyotes 2-0 to snap a two-game losing streak.
Center Charlie Coyle and right winger Jason Pominville scored for Minnesota (3-2-0) and defenseman Jared Spurgeon assisted on both goals. Kuemper finished with 26 saves.
For Arizona (2-3-1), goalie Mike Smith stopped 27 shots, but the Coyotes couldn’t solve Kuemper and were shut out for the first time this season.
Arizona briefly appeared to have gotten a puck past Kuemper early in the third, when center Kyle Chipchura swatted a loose puck over the goal line. But officials emphatically waved it off, rulling that Coyotes right winger R.J. Crombeen was in the crease and made contact with Kuemper before the puck arrived.
The Wild broke through 2:53 into the second period, when defenseman Jared Spurgeon’s shot was tipped by Coyle between Smith’s knees. It was the second goal of the season for Coyle, who signed a five-year contract extension with the Wild on Wednesday.
Less than three minutes later, Spurgeon helped set up a shot through traffic by Pominville that eluded Smith, and Minnesota took a 2-0 lead.
The first period was scoreless, marking the first time this season the Coyotes blanked an opponent in the opening 20 minutes of a game.
The biggest early scare of the game occurred when a hard shot by Wild defenseman Jonas Brodin hit Minnesota left winger Thomas Vanek in the side of the right knee. Vanek, a former University of Minnesota star who signed a three-year, $19.5 million free agent contract with the Wild during the summer, limped to the bench. He later returned to the game and played a regular shift.
Arizona held the Wild scoreless during three man-advantage situations, and Minnesota fell to 0-for-19 on the power play this season.
NOTES: Wild D Keith Ballard, who spent the first three seasons of his career with the Coyotes, missed a chance to face his former employer on Thursday. Ballard and rookie D Christian Folin both fell ill earlier in the day and were scratched from the Minnesota lineup. ... Coyotes C Martin Hanzal, who is day-to-day with a lower body injury, did not make the trip to Minnesota. He was injured in Arizona’s 6-1 home loss to the Blues on Oct. 18. ... After playing just two home games in the season’s first two weeks, the Wild stay in St. Paul to face the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday night. The Coyotes return to Arizona to play host to the Florida Panthers on Saturday night.