When Wild struggled, owner never considered firing Yeo

Now that the Wild has advanced to the Western Conference semifinals after defeating the St. Louis Blues 4-1 on Sunday, owner Craig Leipold sang the praises of coach Mike Yeo and said there was never any consideration of firing him, despite the team's 18-19-5 record before improving the goaltending.

"None, honestly," Leipold said. "Everyone was talking about it, but we never had a conversation. We were having issues on our team, you know, the mumps, things that are just unusual things that shouldn't be happening to a team. We always felt if we could get the goaltending, our team would come together and we'd be playing well. Sure enough, that is exactly what happened.

"I remember [General Manager] Chuck [Fletcher] saying that there's this guy Devan Dubnyk out there. He's a little bit of an unknown, but our coaches like him. Bob Mason, our goaltender coach, likes him. He's 6-6, so the size alone should be helpful. He was the goaltender that was available, and Chuck said we need to get after him, and I said, 'Let's do it.' "

The Wild was 27-9-2 during the regular season and now is 4-2 in the playoffs with Dubnyk in goal.

The former Arizona Coyotes goaltender is a free agent at the end of the season. Leipold was asked if the Wild can match other offers and keep Dubnyk.

"It's a high priority," Leipold said. "I really sincerely believe he wants to be here. I can assure you we want him back. I have to believe that we're going to be able to make a deal with him, but that's for the end of the year."

With a second-round matchup with the Blackhawks coming up, Leipold was asked if he has dreams of the club making the Stanley Cup Final.

"I try not to think about it," he said "It's one of those dreams that just has always seemed like it would be too far out for me to even think about. We have a long ways to go for that to happen."

After buying the team seven years ago, is this kind of performance he expected?

"That's a hard one to answer," he said. "We were always hopeful that it would happen. The big key is that we need to play like we know we can play. But we're playing so well as a team right now, I'm real happy with the progress that we've made."

Parise paying off

With winger Zach Parise leading the team with two goals Sunday and a total of three goals and four assists in the Blues series, the spending of big bucks — 13 years for $98 million each for Parise and defenseman Ryan Suter three years ago — seems to have paid off.

"This is making it all worthwhile," Leipold said. "That has turned out to probably be the best investment that a team has made in the last 10 years. It has turned out so well for us, turned out well for them. Everybody is happy. The city is happy. It was a great decision."

Leipold gives Fletcher loads of credit for putting a great team together.

"Chuck has done an unbelievable job of putting together good hockey players, good people, people that want to play together, players that are committed to winning, that want to win and will do anything to win," Leipold said. "That is Chuck's model that he is going to use."

Leipold thinks the big key for the Wild going forward is to get the early lead and then keep control.

"It's funny; we're a team that can play incredibly well," he said. "The key is we have to get off to a good start. We want to get off to a good start. We want to score that first goal."

Has owning the Wild been everything Leipold hoped it would be?

"It has been many times over more than I thought it would be," he said. "This is such a fun market to be a part of. The community is so supportive of what we're doing. We have the right players together that I think we can do a lot of damage this year."

Leipold also said that with the Wild reaching the second round, the team should operate at a profit for the season. The team continues to invest in Xcel Energy Center, putting in a new scoreboard last year and putting in all new seats before next season.

"Every year, we plan to keep the building up so this continues to be the premier building in the National Hockey League," he said.

Leipold thanked the fans for their great support.

"This is such a happening thing for the city and just fun to be walking around the city," he said. "Everyone is aware of what's going on, and they're all excited."

Fletcher proud of poise

If there was a time to worry in the Wild's 4-1 victory Sunday, it was when the Blues scored with only 3.4 seconds left in the second period to make it a 2-1 game.

Fletcher was asked if that was a moment that made him nervous.

"That's always concerning when you give up a goal late in the period," Fletcher said. "We were able to come back and get a goal early in the third and settle everything down. We played a pretty solid third period. I give our players a lot of credit for their poise."

And what did Fletcher think of the performance of Parise?

"Zach played a great game, and our defense competed hard," Fletcher said. "Obviously, Devan Dubnyk played really well. It was great. They're a very, very good team. St. Louis, they put a lot of pressure on us, but we kept battling."

Fletcher said he was happy to beat the Blues, a team many predicted could reach the Stanley Cup Final.

"Well, this is a great feeling to win a round," he said. "St. Louis is a great team, and we were fortunate to beat them. Any time you can get to the second round, it's a great achievement, and hopefully we have a few more rounds to go."

Now the Wild will get a familiar foe in the Blackhawks. Minnesota went 2-3 overall against Chicago this season but won the final two games.

"We played them the last two years [in the playoffs], and they beat us both times," Fletcher said. "So we're due. Hopefully we can find a way to come out on top this year."

Is the Wild in a better position to defeat the Blackhawks this year than in previous playoff series?

"I hope so, we have more experience," Fletcher said. "We've been through a couple playoff rounds against them now, and we're a deeper team. But they are a very, very good team, so hopefully it goes well."

Fletcher praised the play of Dubnyk, who allowed six goals in Game 4 but only seven goals in the five other games combined.

"Devan gives us a lot of confidence in goal," Fletcher said. "It has been a great story for him and obviously a great acquisition for us. We're really, really happy to have him. It always starts in goal and you work your way out from there, and we have a solid group right now."

Sid Hartman can be heard weekdays on 830-AM at 7:40 and 8:40 a.m. and on Sundays at 9:30 a.m. shartman@startribune.com