St. Paul, Minnesota: Best known as a defensive-minded centre, Mikko Koivu came up big at the other end on Saturday night for the Minnesota Wild.

The Wild captain scored midway through the third period to lift Minnesota over the Pittsburgh Penguins 2-1.

Daniel Winnik also scored and Devan Dubnyk made 29 saves. The Wild, winless in their first four one-goal games this season, have won three of four overall.

“I think we’re starting to show the way we need to play to win hockey games,” Koivu said. “There were some parts of that early on and we just couldn’t keep it for 60 minutes.”

The Wild have allowed eight goals in their past four games.

“We trust that if we’re playing the way we’re supposed to play, especially defensively, that’s something you need to do in this league,” Koivu said.

It starts with Koivu, a finalist last season for the Frank J. Selke Trophy awarded as the league’s top defensive forward.

Coach Bruce Boudreau likes to put the line of Koivu, Jason Zucker and Mikael Granlund against other team’s top players, many that are more well-known for their offensive prowess.

“You know [Koivu] takes challenges,” Boudreau said. “He was against [Sidney] Crosby all night long and I thought he did a tremendous job. You know last game he was against [Islanders captain John] Tavares all night long. It gets him going when we challenge him with things like this. He took it as a challenge and he went out and did a great job at it.”

The line of Crosby, Jake Guentzel and Conor Sheary had just five shots on goal. The trio has 13 goals this season.

“They’ve got some of the best offensive guys in the league and I thought we did a good job shutting them down,” Winnik said.

Minnesota blocked 18 shots.

Evgeni Malkin scored for Pittsburgh, who are starting a five-game trip that includes a swing through Western Canada.

The Penguins have scored just six goals in four games, yet won two of those, both 2-1 in overtime.

“We have to find a way to play our game for 60 minutes,” defenceman Kris Letang said. “That’s the big key right now. I think we play one good period, kind of sit back. When we need a goal we start going. We had tons of chances at the end again, we just can’t score.”

On the winning goal, Kyle Quincey kept the puck in at the left point and zipped a pass across to Mike Reilly at the right wall. His wrist shot from the circle was deflected by Koivu between the pads of Matt Murray at 9:03.