Wild coach Bruce Boudreau was compelled to shuffle his defense corps Tuesday and split up the top two pairings, reuniting Jared Spurgeon with Ryan Suter and putting Matt Dumba alongside Jonas Brodin.

Suter and Dumba struggled in Sunday’s 3-1 loss at Chicago. Both were minus-2 and on the ice for all three Blackhawks goals.

“I just thought it was time,” Boudreau said. “We just talked about it on the ice. The one good thing is you can change it back in 30 seconds. But everybody’s OK with it. They’re all comfortable with each other. I don’t have a problem trying something new.”

On the plus side, Dumba has a four-game points streak going with Suter, while Brodin and Spurgeon had knitted themselves into a shutdown pair.

“He gets a little wild,” Boudreau said about Dumba’s two-way game. “The times he’s getting crazy we’re behind and we’re asking our D to jump up and create plays and if you’re down there (in the offensive zone), stay down there. We’re counting on the forwards to back them up.”

Spurgeon shrugged off the switch.

“I thought we were playing really well together, but you just play who you’re put with,” Spurgeon said. “We just have to roll with it.”

There were plenty of hoots, hollers and hijinks Tuesday when the Wild returned to the ice, fully rested following a day off and confident about purging their lost weekend from memory.

Minnesota blew a 2-0 lead and coughed up the winner with only 1:30 remaining at home Saturday against Buffalo before falling behind by two goals and failing to rally Sunday against the Blackhawks in Chicago.

A lively practice took the edge off as players razzed each other during odd-man rushes and offensive-zone drills, good-naturedly rubbing each other out along the boards and staging mock scrums.

Jason Zucker bit off more than he could chew tussling with rugged winger Marcus Foligno, who was able to practice after leaving Sunday’s game because of a third-period leg injury.

Foligno was a full practice participant and expected to play Wednesday against the Ottawa Senators at Xcel Energy Center. He was hobbled after blocking a slap shot from Chicago defenseman Brent Seabrook on the outer part of his right knee. X-rays were negative.

“I had a feeling he’d be out there,” Boudreau said. “He’s a tough kid, so unless it was broken he was going to find a way. You can see he’s fine now.” Related Articles Bob Nevin, won 2 Stanley Cups with Maple Leafs and played 2 seasons with North Stars, dies at 82

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Most of practice focused on offense, with forwards trying to bury scoring chances during 3-on-2 drills against defense pairings. After scoring at least three goals in seven of eight games, the Wild were held to three goals combined in their two weekend losses.

The Wild have not lost three consecutive games all season. They bracketed two-game losing streaks around their only victory in the season’s first five games, responding with 11 wins in 15 games.

“With this group, every time we come back we seem to come back stronger,” Boudreau said. “We’ve got a lot of good professionals in that group; a lot of guys that just bought in. Hey, the week’s over. It’s done. Let’s start a new week here. Let’s not dwell on things that mount.”