ST. PAUL, Minn. — There are no trips for Cancun planned, no cruises or late nights in Las Vegas. But the Minnesota Wild are enjoying their unusual spring break.

In the ever-compacted NHL schedule, Minnesota received a welcome — and rare — break this week before the final stretch of the season and a likely playoff appearance. After sweeping back-to-back home games, the Wild had four days between games.

"I think less is a good thing," Minnesota forward Chris Stewart said. "You’ve got an older team here, so I think the rest is only going to benefit us. But it kind of sucks when you’re riding a hot streak, kind of just want to play. But we plan on making a deep run and we’ll be playing a lot of hockey, so we’ve got to use the rest to our advantage."

The Wild will enjoy the rest. Yet, as Stewart notes, the timing does interrupt Minnesota’s league-best stretch since the All-Star break.

The Wild have 49 points (24-5-1 record) in 30 games since the break. This chance to relax finishes off a hectic schedule which has included 30 games in 61 days since Minnesota returned following the All-Star break.

"It’s been a lot of hockey, to be honest with you," captain Mikko Koivu said. "I don’t think I’ve ever had this before when there’s this many games in short of time. And I think the way we finished, too, here these four games, however many wins in a row, but that’s important — going in feeling good about ourselves."

The Wild entered their spring break with four straight wins. They won back-to-back home games, the first time Minnesota has played back-to-back at home since the lockout-shortened 2013 season before four days off at home. The break is in the middle of a season-long, five-game homestand.

The NHL schedule can offer interesting twists. Remember, the Wild opened the season at home on Oct. 9 and then played one game over the next seven days. Unusual is getting four days off near the end of the season, with just six games remaining.

All of the players had Sunday off and a small group skated on Monday with the majority of the team getting two days off.

"That will give us the rest that we need and give us kind of the opportunity to ramp things up and have two good, intense practices," Yeo said.

Yeo has already talked about the challenge of the Wild returning Thursday still playing at their best. Minnesota’s 26-6-2 record since Jan. 15 (34 games in 73 days), when goaltender Devan Dubnyk first played for the Wild, helped propel the team from 12th in the Western Conference to the top wild-card spot.

By beating Los Angeles on Saturday, Minnesota catapulted over Chicago for third place in the Central Division. But the Blackhawks’ win Sunday gave them back the third-place position heading into Monday’s games.

"Those standings are going to change 10 times by the end of the year here," Stewart said. "So, you can’t live or die on that roller coaster. We’re just going to take it one game at a time and wherever we land, we land."

Yeo has been hesitant to talk about the standings during the team’s run. With Minnesota all but assured of advancing to the playoffs for the third straight season, Yeo did acknowledge the team’s position after beating Los Angeles.

"We’ve got a long ways to go, but yes, I’ll say it, you look at what we’ve done lately and there’s no reason why our group should not feel good and be confident," Yeo said. "I think that that’s growing and it’s something that we’ve got to continue to grow, and it’s ongoing. You can lose it as quickly as you can gain it, but we have it right now and our guys, they’re doing a good job."

They’ve earned the rest, even as rare as it might be at this time of the season.

"I think its great timing for us just to recharge our batteries," forward Nino Niederreiter said. "I feel like we all feel good about ourselves, and we all feel comfortable and confident about our game."

Now what to do with the time off?

"It will be good," Dubnyk said after Saturday’s game. "It will be fun. Try and get together with some of the guys and take a breath, and look back and really enjoy what we’ve done so far."

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