Koivu nets winner in milestone

Mikko Koivu capped a milestone game with the shootout winner.

Playing in his 1,000th career game, the Minnesota captain reached 700th career points with a second-period assist, then scored in the fourth round of the tiebreaker to help the Wild beat the Dallas Stars 3-2 on Sunday.

Koivu, playing his 15th season with the Wild, beat Ben Bishop with his trademark move, a backhand over the goalie’s left shoulder. Then Alex Stalock, who made 26 saves, stuffed Corey Perry to seal the victory.

“I just tried to pick a move that I’m comfortable with,” said Koivu, who scored his 42nd career shootout goal in 106 attempts. “It’s always a challenge to go to the shootout against the goaltending in this league. But yeah. It was a good feeling.”

Kevin Fiala had a goal and an assist and Zach Parise also scored for the Wild. Both also scored in the first three rounds of the shootout, but Joe Pavelski and Tyler Seguin countered for Dallas. That forced Wild coach Bruce Boudreau’s hand when deciding on a fourth shooter.

“I didn’t know what I was doing, quite frankly,” said Boudreau, whose team is 6-0-3 in its last nine games. “Initially I wasn’t going to put (Koivu) in because he hadn’t scored in the shootout in like two years. But I figured he was rested because he didn’t play in overtime, and it was his day … all the stars were shining in the right direction, so go out there and win it.”

Blake Comeau and John Klingberg scored for Dallas and Bishop stopped 27 shots. The Stars have lost three in a row after a 14-1-1 run.

After averaging 3.9 goals per game in their hot stretch, the Stars have managed just three goals in their threegame losing streak. But Dallas coach Jim Montgomery isn’t hitting the panic button just yet.