The Wild found themselves killing a penalty just 72 seconds into the first period of their showdown with Dallas on Saturday, and almost immediately Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen clanked the goalpost with a long-range shot.

As recently as two weeks ago, there may have been a sense of impending doom not only among the Wild fanbase, but also on the bench, as Minnesota’s penalty-killing unit had some struggles in October, and was one of the NHL’s least-effective last season.

On Saturday they killed the penalty, and did not allow Dallas another man advantage. The Wild penalty-killers have now thwarted 16 consecutive shorthanded situations, and their confidence is clearly growing.

“That’s huge. We had some trouble last year and even in the beginning of (this) year, even though we started to feel better. We’d let up a few questionable goals,” said Wild goalie Filip Gustavsson, who had 38 saves in the 2-1 loss to Dallas. “But it feels like the guys want to block the shots now and we really try and help each other. I know who my guy is and they know who their guy is and we just have to trust it. Everyone takes accountability if they don’t do their job and we try and make it right.”

Wild coach John Hynes said that figuring out roles and responsibilities when a teammate is in the penalty box is a process that took some time to develop, but he likes what he is seeing now.

“We knew coming into the season it was going to take some time. It was one of the biggest areas we had to fix and teach and get guys to the system we wanted to play — not only the system, the details within the system,” Hynes said following the Dallas game. “I think guys are understanding and executing at a high level. The attention to detail is strong.”

In their 17 games, the Wild have been shorthanded 40 times and have given up seven power-play goals, which is good for 77.5 percent efficiency. Even after 16 consecutive killed penalties, they only rank 23rd in the 32-team NHL, which is a reflection of their early-season struggles that they hope are in the past.

Three sent down to Iowa

In a sign that defenseman Jonas Brodin and forward Joel Ericksson Ek may be ready for the Wild’s upcoming three-game road trip, on Sunday the NHL team reassigned a trio of players to their Iowa AHL team. Forward Mikey Milne, who got eight shifts in his NHL debut on Saturday versus Dallas was sent down, along with forward Liam Ohgren and defenseman Daemon Hunt.

“I thought he did good. I’m certainly happy for him and his family to obviously get your first NHL game is special,” Hynes said of Milne’s debut. “It was nice to see him, get to know him prior to this because I hadn’t seen him. And getting to see him tonight, I thought he did good. He’s a quick player. I thought he made good decisions. He got his feet wet.”

The Wild next face the Blues in St. Louis at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

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