ST. PAUL  — With 10 games left in the regular season for the Vancouver Canucks, there’s little danger of falling out of first place.

They’re more concerned about this recent series of uncharacteristic performances. They’re still on solid footing for the second seed in the Western Conference playoffs, but on the ice they’ve been slipping.

Erik Christensen’s power-play goal late in the second period gave goalie Josh Harding and the Minnesota Wild a long-sought victory, 2-0 over the suddenly sputtering Canucks on Monday.

“It’s about playing our game and trusting that our system is going to win us games and not individual efforts. That’s what won us games last year,” said captain Henrik Sedin, who is rarely held without a point against Minnesota.

Kyle Brodziak’s empty-netter gave the Wild even more to smile about, hearing a rare end-of-the-game roar from their fans after this win over the Northwest Division leader and competitor for the NHL’s best record. Minnesota ended a five-game home losing streak.

“They were rockin’. I think they might have still been drunk from St. Patrick’s Day. We build off that emotion, and we knew that we owed it to them to have a good game,” Harding said.

The Canucks are six points behind league leader St. Louis, and they’re 3-5-2 in their last 10 games. Starting a four-game road trip the wrong way, they failed to crash the net with any urgency or consistency and were shut out for the fourth time this season. The first three came in the first 10 games, with the last on Oct. 26.

“We’ve got to muster up a way to find a way to win games,” center Ryan Kesler said. “If we play the way we can and we get better, we shouldn’t have a problem winning the majority of our games from here on out.”

Harding made 33 saves for his second shutout of the season and his first victory since Jan. 21 over Dallas, thanks in part to 14 blocked shots by his teammates. The Wild, who won in regulation for only the second time in their last 13 games, finally got their 30th win. They were the first team in the NHL to 20 victories, reached more than three months ago.

“No matter what situation we’re in, we want to feel good about the effort we bring,” Brodziak said. “Tonight we can go home feeling good about ourselves.”