SAINT PAUL, Minn. -- With the Nashville Predators trailing the Minnesota Wild in the waning moments of Saturday night's game at Xcel Energy Center, Nashville left winger James Neal had some words for Minnesota goaltender Devan Dubnyk.

"He told me that he hopes I don't get a shutout," Dubnyk said.

Neal did not get his wish.

Former Nashville defenseman Ryan Suter's three-point night and Dubnyk's 23 saves led the Wild to a 4-0 win over the Predators.

With a goal and two assists, Suter leads the Wild in scoring with 19 points and has 13 points in his last 11 games. He now has 12 points in 15 games against his former club.

Wild left winger Thomas Vanek and center Mikael Granlund had a goal and an assist each to lift Minnesota's home record to 8-1-0 and avenge its lone loss of the season in St. Paul, a 3-2 Nashville win on Nov. 5.

"These divisional games are so important, even this early in the year," Dubnyk said. "They grabbed one from us earlier so this one was important."

Nashville, which also lost 4-0 on Friday night in Columbus, is 0-3-1 in back-to-back games this season but arrived in Minnesota unbeaten in regulation in its last five visits (4-0-1).

"Last night we had an awful lot of quality scoring chances, we just didn't score," Nashville coach Peter Laviolette said. "Tonight was a different story. They defended pretty good. We didn't seem to be in synch and have our jump to us tonight, certainly not like we did last night.

"Same score but two different games, really."

The Predators' deficit could have been much worse had it not been for goaltender Pekka Rinne, who turned aside several high-percentage Minnesota chances in making 24 saves, including 19 through two periods.

Nashville captain Shea Weber said the Predators must work to generate offense from their defensive game rather than simply taking more chances.

"Yeah we were shut out but we were giving up really good chances," Weber said. "We've got to help Peks out a little bit more and then hopefully the offense can stem from that."

The Wild returned home following a 1-2-1 road trip which failed to generate a lead at any time in regulation. The Wild is 9-1-0 when scoring first.

"We knew that we could come home and get this thing turned around quick," Suter said. "I thought we did that; I thought we finally played 60 minutes."

But Suter's first-period power-play goal opened the scoring for Minnesota 13:07 into the game, marking the first time in five games the Wild scored the opening goal. Suter wristed a shot from the top of the left circle through Vanek's screen just seconds after Rinne robbed Vanek at the right post.

"As soon as that went in, that was a lot of relief for our team," Suter said. "We had been chasing and I think that's what's' been taking away from our structure and the way that we were used to playing."

The goal, Suter's third of the season and first since Oct. 27 that turned out to be the winner, came roughly a minute after Wild right winger Nino Niederreiter's shot at an open net was foiled by the stick blade of Nashville center Mike Fisher.

The Wild extended the lead just 1:44 into the second when Granlund scored his third goal of the year and second in Minnesota's last three games. Wild defenseman Christian Folin's shot from the right faceoff dot caromed off Rinne's right pad deep in the slot directly to Granlund, who had nothing but net in front of him.

Defenseman Jonas Brodin made it 3-0 with a blast from the top of the left circle that beat Rinne at 8:06 of the second. Suter set up the goal with his team-leading 15th assist with help from center Mikko Koivu.

Koivu, the Wild captain, played his 700th game, joining former teammate Nick Schultz as the only other player to reach that milestone in a Minnesota uniform.

Minnesota's three goals in the second period were matched by three fights in a penalty-marred period, including a bout between Nashville left winger James Neal and Minnesota defenseman Nate Prosser. It was Neal's hit on Wild left winger Zach Parise in the Predators' most recent visit to Minnesota, which left Parise sidelined with an injured knee.

"You see guys dropping the gloves out there, obviously you never expect them to," Dubnyk said. "But it shows how we feel about what he did to our best player and it's important just for the symbolic part of it."

Vanek, who had been snakebitten by Rinne all game, closed the scoring with a power-play goal 2:28 into the third period with assists by Jason Pominville and Suter.

Weber said the Predators just weren't good enough to win on this night.

"I don't think we're hungry enough, we're not getting to the interior of the ice," Weber said. "I'm not saying that's easy against this team, they defend very well and it's hard to get shots through."

NOTES: Injured Minnesota LW Zach Parise participated in the team's morning skate but was not in the lineup against Nashville, missing his seventh straight game with a sprained MCL. ... Nashville reassigned C Colton Sissons and activated LW Eric Nystrom from injured reserve after the one-time Wild forward missed eight games with a lower body injury. ... Wild D Jonas Brodin returned to the Minnesota lineup after sitting out Thursday's game in Boston because of illness. ... Saturday's game was the first of four straight and sixth in the next seven at home for Minnesota, which is off until hosting Vancouver on Wednesday night. ... The Predators travel to New York to face the Rangers on Monday in the third game of a five-game road trip.