COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Wild have started their season on a somewhat arcane, yet salient, run, playing five games without trailing in regulation. The 300-minute streak is the fourth-longest for a team to start an NHL season.

Coach John Hynes was loath to point to a single reason after Minnesota’s 3-1 victory against the Blue Jackets on Saturday at Nationwide Arena, saying, essentially, that his team has generally risen to the occasion when adversity raises its head.

“It hasn’t really been anything that I’d say we’ve done,” he said. “I’d say it’s how the games have played out.”

But if you’re looking for a common thread, well, it’s defense. Headed into Tuesday’s game at Florida, the Wild (3-0-2) have allowed only 10 goals, three on power plays, tying them for third in the NHL. A large part of that has been Filip Gustavsson, who is off to his best start in three full NHL seasons.

After stopping 23 of 24 shots on Saturday, he’s 3-0-1 in four starts with a 1.49 goals-against average and .950 save percentage, sixth in the NHL before Sunday’s games.

“We’ve worked so hard,” Gustavsson said. “Maybe we don’t play (well) all the time but we’re just there working, working, working, and that’s why we score one, two, three goals. It’s just because we outwork the teams we’ve played against so far.”

The Wild are the fifth team in NHL history to not trail in regulation through each of their first five games in a season, joining the 1969-70 Boston Bruins (seven games), 2015-16 Montreal Canadiens, 1990-91 Bruins (five) and the 1930-31 Maple Leafs (five).

Minnesota’s power play seems to be improving, as well, perfect in its past two games, lifting the unit to a 75 percent success rate (3 for 12). It’s not great — it’s 22nd in the NHL so far — but better than it ever was last season. On Saturday, the Wild killed a 4-minute high sticking minor while protecting a 1-0 lead in the second period.

“We’re being junkyard dogs,” said defenseman Jake Middleton, a key player in the first unit. “I don’t know if anyone’s used that term on you yet, but that’s our mentality we’ve got going into our meetings, and into the kills right now, and so far so good.”

On the other end, the power play continues to score. After finishing 10th in the NHL last season, Minnesota’s PP unit is Top 5 so far after scoring on 5 of 16 chances.

No shot

Gustavsson became the 15th NHL goaltender to score a goal last Tuesday at St. Louis but had no designs on becoming the third to score more than one on Saturday night after the Blue Jackets pulled goalie Danil Taranov late in an attempt to erase a 3-1 deficit.

“It wouldn’t be possible,” the goalie said.

Gustavsson’s goal in St. Louis was prompted by the rare instance of the opponent pulling the goalie just to pull to even strength. The Wild were on a 4-minute power play at the time.

“I didn’t think of another one,” he said. “Scoring goals isn’t really my job description, so I just had to stick to what I’m supposed to do and it worked out today.”

Finally, a start

Jesper Wallstedt finally started a game on Saturday, his first since he won two preseason starts for the Wild in September. In net for Iowa, he stopped 37 of 42 shots against in a 5-0 loss at San Jose.

Wallstedt, 21, made the NHL roster out of training camp, joining Gustavsson and Marc-Andre Fleury, but was reassigned twice to Des Moines to make room for injury replacements and hadn’t played in a game since a 4-2 preseason loss to Dallas on Sept. 29.

Briefly

The Wild are hoping to get forward Ryan Hartman back for Tuesday’s game in Sunrise, Fla. He’s on the trip but was scratched Saturday because of an upper body injury.

Wild vs. Panthers

When: 5:30 p.m. CT Tuesday
Where: Sunrise, Fla., Amerant Bank Arena
TV/Radio: Bally Sports North, KFAN-FM 100.3.

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