By scoring first, the Wild have made the road more friendly

Hockey coaches have a saying for the best way to win on the road: You ve gotta get off the bus. For the Minnesota Wild, who are playing 21 of their first 31 games this season away from Grand Casino Arena, one way they ve climbed to an 11-3-3 record that has them atop the Western Conference is by getting off the bus. Case in point: In Tuesday night s 4-2 win in Philadelphia, they scored twice before the game was five minutes old, and they led 3-0 before holding on for a 4-2 win. It was the 12th time in their 17 games that the Wild have scored first, which is best in the NHL, and they are 9-0-3 in those dozen games. During a 5-1 win in Washington on Sunday, the Wild s top line of Kirill Kaprizov, Joel Eriksson Ek and Matt Boldy — quickly gaining credibility as the NHL s most dangerous trio — scored first, and the second line of Blake Coleman, Michael McCarron and Bobby Brink scored next. Two nights later in Philadelphia, they followed the same script, with goals by