Rangers hold on, beat Wild

Oscar Lindberg had a goal and an assist, Antti Raanta made 25 saves and the New York Rangers held on to beat the Minnesota Wild 3-2 on Saturday night in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Brady Skjei and Jimmy Vesey also scored for the Rangers, who are 7-1 in their last eight road games and have a leaguehigh 26 victories away from home this season.

Eric Staal and Matt Dumba scored for the Wild, who lost for the seventh time in their last nine games. Devan Dubnyk made 27 saves.

Minnesota struck first when Staal, a former Ranger, beat Raanta from the slot just after a penalty on New York had expired. Martin Hanzal dug a loose puck out of the corner and fired it to Staal, who was all alone and beat Raanta high with a wrist shot for his 24th goal.

Skjei tied it with four minutes left in the first period when he beat Dubnyk with a blast from just above the right circle. Mats Zuccarello fed the puck from the left point across the ice to Skjei, and Dubnyk didn’t get across in time to stop Skjei’s one-timer, which bounced in off the tip of Dubnyk’s skate.

Lindberg put the Rangers on top 2-1 midway through the second period. J.T. Miller chased a puck into the corner to Dubnyk’s right and flicked a blind pass to the goalmouth, where Lindberg was waiting to bury it for his sixth goal.

Vesey made it 3-1 with 2:26 left in the second period when he corralled a rebound of a shot by Lindberg and tucked it behind Dubnyk for his 15th.

Dumba scored on the power play to cut New York’s lead to 3-2 at 4:51 of the third. Raanta stopped Zach Parise’s shot in front of the net, but the rebound trickled out to his right and Dumba, pinching in from the point, pounced on it.

The Wild recently completed a 1-4 road trip in which they scored just six goals in their four losses. Minnesota’s lead over Chicago in the Central Division had been as large as nine points in February, but the Wild now sit in second place behind the Blackhawks. BLUE JACKETS 3, ISLANDERS 2 (OT) » At New York, Cam Atkinson scored 1 minute, 19 seconds into overtime to lift Columbus over New York.

Oliver Bjorkstrand and Josh Anderson scored 14 minutes, 48 seconds apart in the second period for Columbus, which won for the seventh time in March and improved to 46-18-6.

Travis Hamonic and John Tavares scored for New York, which dropped to 33-26-12 with its fourth loss in five games.

This was the regularseason series finale for the Metropolitan Division rivals. When play began Saturday, the Islanders and Tampa Bay trailed Toronto by one point for the final Eastern Conference wild card berth.

With the overtime loss, New York passed Toronto for the second wild-card position, but the Maple Leafs and Lightning play later.

Before the game, Columbus coach John Tortorella said his team was prepared for New York to attack with heavy pressure. Instead, Columbus outshot New York, 38-22 and controlled much of the game.