ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) -- The Minnesota Wild are a confident bunch

as the NHL season nears the halfway point.

Scoring will do that for a team that recently was starved for

offense.

Marian Gaborik broke a nine-game goal drought for the Wild in a

3-3 tie with the Nashville Predators on Tuesday night.

Richard Park and Jason Wiemer also scored for Minnesota, which

extended its season-high unbeaten streak to six games (4-0-2) and

has 20 goals over that stretch.

"We're playing well right now," center Wes Walz said. "We're

on our game. I'm really excited here about what we can do in the

second half."

David Legwand, Mark Eaton and Adam Hall had goals for Nashville,

which tied Phoenix 3-3 at home Monday.

"Maybe we had a little edge there," Minnesota coach Jacques

Lemaire said, noting the Predators' back-to-back games.

Goalie Tomas Vokoun's tireless work kept Nashville in it. He

saved 23 of 26 shots, and several of them difficult stops.

"You didn't get any easy shots," Vokoun said. "I mean, look

at me. I'm soaked. That was one of the toughest games I've played

in."

His words were a testament to Minnesota's newfound

aggressiveness in the opponent's end.

"I think our guys are starting to have confidence," Lemaire

said. "That's the reason why they're scoring more goals, too.

"You go hard at the net, you're going to get some breaks.

You're going to get some bounces."

Nashville had a power play with 30.3 seconds left in overtime

after Andrei Zyuzin was whistled for holding. But Kimmo Timonen's

last-second attempt glanced off Minnesota goalie Manny Fernandez,

over the net and out of trouble.

Fernandez, who gave up just nine goals in his previous seven

starts, wasn't at his best -- stopping 17 of 20 shots.

Hall scored on a power play late in a five-goal second period to

put Nashville ahead 3-2, the Predators' second score with a man

advantage in the last 10 games. They're 2-for-48 on power plays

during that span.

Wiemer tied it at 3 a little more than a minute after Hall's

goal when Pierre Marc-Bouchard circled behind the net and threaded

the puck through traffic to Wiemer on the other side for an easy

goal.

Legwand, Nashville's leading scorer, gave the Predators a 1-0

lead just 44 seconds in when, unchallenged between the circles, he

poked a rebound past Fernandez.

Eaton answered Gaborik's backhanded with a long rebound that

appeared to glance off Wild defenseman Brad Bombardir's stick,

putting the Predators up 2-1.

Bouchard, Park, Gaborik, Willie Mitchell and Filip Kuba all

missed prime scoring chances on Vokoun, 15-12-4 this season.

Mitchell hit the post with less than six minutes remaining in

regulation.

Gaborik's season-long frustration continued in the first period,

when he had two point-blank shots turned away by Vokoun in

succession before Eaton cleared the puck out of the crease.

The franchise's first-ever All-Star last season, Gaborik missed

the first 12 games during a contract dispute and has only four

goals and five assists in 23 games since signing a multiyear deal

on Oct. 31.

He's skating better now -- Lemaire left him out there for some

double shifts in this one.

"I felt pretty good," Gaborik said. "You're hungry for more,

obviously."

It's early, but this was an important game -- the first of four

meetings this season between two of the four most recent expansion

entries into the NHL. Nashville and Minnesota began the day in

eighth and ninth place, respectively, in what promises to be a

crowded Western Conference playoff race.

"Every point is so important," Predators coach Barry Trotz

said. "You don't want to lose any ground."Game notes
Gaborik has only eight goals in his last 55 regular-season

games. The last time he scored at Xcel Energy Center was in the

playoffs on May 2 against Vancouver. ... Nashville began a

four-game road trip. ... The Wild allowed more than two goals for

the first time in 13 games.