Minnesota Wild goalie Niklas Backstrom blocks a shot by Oilers centre Patrick O'Sullivan during Sunday's game. (Craig Lassig/Associated Press)

Minnesota Wild goalie Niklas Backstrom continued his mastery of the Edmonton Oilers on Sunday, recording his seventh shutout of the season in a 3-0 win at home.

"You hate to see the 30-plus shot shutouts. That means you're getting pucks to the net," Oilers coach Craig MacTavish said. "If you're committed enough there, you should be able to get some offence. We just didn't pay as big a price as we had in the last number of games."

Veteran Owen Nolan scored two goals for the Wild, and Oilers defenceman Tom Gilbert scored on his own net, adding insult to injury.

Backstrom is 12-1-0 with four shutouts against Edmonton in his last 13 games against the club, and shone particularly bright in the first period when the Oilers outshot Minnesota 15-2. Edmonton put 31 shots in total on the Finnish netminder, but couldn't get one past him.

"If you're a team that can generate 15 shots in one period against the Minnesota Wild, you know you can create opportunities, so that's one positive we can take from it," Edmonton's Shawn Horcoff said.

Koivu left game

Wild point-leader Mikko Koivu left the game in the second period with what is suspected to be a knee injury.

Edmonton hasn't won in the Twin Cities since 2007.

Dwayne Roloson made 33 saves in the loss, which snapped the Oilers' three-game winning streak. A member of the Wild from 2001-06, Roloson hasn't fared well in his former home, going 0-6-2 in his last eight games in Minnesota. Roloson did, however, pick up the win in both meetings in Edmonton this season.

Edmonton missed a golden opportunity to swat away a team that is chasing it for the final playoff spots in the Western Conference.

With the win, Minnesota is now only one point back of Nashville for eighth spot in the NHL's West, and is three back of the Oilers, who are in seventh, with 10 games remaining for each team.

Desperate mode

"We're in desperate mode right now and have to get everything we can," Nolan said. "Especially playing a team that's within reach, we've got to make sure we close the gap." The 37-year-old leads the Wild in goals on the season, with 22.

Edmonton outshot the Wild in the first, but couldn't get one past Backstrom. Minnesota came out stronger in the second and broke through when Nolan potted a rebound off a Pierre-Marc Bouchard slapshot on the power play at 14:26.

"We came out and we were tight. Really tight," Minnesota coach Jacques Lemaire said. "Not skating, afraid to make mistakes. We didn't move the puck well. We turned the puck over. Everyone knew we would play better in the second."

The Wild outshot the Oilers 23-12 in the second, a season-high shot total in a single period for the Minnesota club.

Nolan scored again at 4:19 of the third, when he was the recipient of a nice centring pass by James Sheppard out of the corner.

Gilbert capped off a not-so-good night for Edmonton when his breakout pass went off teammate Sam Gagner and past Roloson for Minnesota's third and final goal. Stephane Veilleux received credit for the goal.

With files from the Associated Press