TORONTO -- Regardless of how ugly it may look, the most important thing for the Minnesota Wild at this point in the season is securing two points each night as they push to secure a wild card berth with 17 games remaining.

On Thursday, the Wild needed a third-period goal from Mikael Granlund to squeeze out a 2-1 victory over the 30th-placed Toronto Maple Leafs at Air Canada Centre.

"That's all that matters, wins. We don't care how we get them," said Wild captain Mikko Koivu, who had the other Minnesota goal. "Every single point matters, and that's our goal to get two (points) each and every night."

Devan Dubnyk made 21 saves to improve to 24-21-5.

The win keeps Minnesota (30-25-10) in the wild card race in the Western Conference. The Wild, winners of five straight over Toronto (21-32-10) and three straight overall, entered Thursday's games holding the last wild card spot.

"For me, moving forward, I said we're going to have to try and win the game 1-0 or 2-1 some nights to stay in (the playoff race)," said Wild coach John Torchetti. "Don't try and do the extra play, or try and cheat on a forecheck.

"We did a good job. I know we didn't get the shots on net that we wanted, but I thought Duby played really well for us."

Jake Gardiner had the lone goal for the Maple Leafs, who lost four straight and eight of nine. The Maple Leafs are last in the league, five points back of 29th-placed Edmonton.

Toronto pulled Sparks, who made 20 saves in the loss, with just over two minutes remaining in the third for an extra attacker, but was unable to find the equalizer.

"I think, just in general, I liked the way we played," said Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock. "I thought we did a lot of good things. I'd like us to be more dangerous offensively. I think we will be as time goes on for sure, and guys learn the league, get more confidence in the league, but I was impressed by how we played tonight.

"Even though (Minnesota's) season hasn't gone the way they wanted they have a lot of really good players and I thought the game was good."

With Leo Komarov in the box for interference, Granland one-timed a cross-ice feed from Thomas Vanek, glove-side on Sparks, at 11:35 of the third period for his eighth goal of the season.

"I don't think it's as frustrating as people think because we're in the hockey game," said Maple Leafs center Nazem Kadri. "Every single night we have a chance to win. It's bad breaks like that, I mean, taking a penalty obviously, being shorthanded for four straight minutes and they've got some pretty skilled guys out there. You're going to give them some chances."

The two teams were tied 1-1 after 40 minutes.

Gardiner opened the scoring at 7:33 of the middle period, beating a screened Dubnyk with a blast from the point for his sixth of the season. The Minnetonka, Minn., native now has two goals in seven career games against his hometown team.

Minnesota responded on the power play less than four minutes later as Koivu's pass attempt went off a body in front and between the legs of Sparks for his 14th of the season. With the goal, Koivu has a team-leading eight power-play goals this season.

The Wild have now scored 13 goals with the man advantage in their past 11 road games.

"We want to improve on (the power play) every single day every single game," Koivu said. "When pucks are going in, you want to keep doing it. Find the things that are (working) and prove in some areas that you can even do better.

"That's a good thing that both units got a goal tonight. That's what you need. You need all four lines, and special teams have to be good."

NOTES: D Jonas Brodin returned to the Wild lineup after missing 13 games with a broken foot. ... RW David Jones, acquired by Minnesota from Calgary before Monday's NHL trade deadline, made his Wild debut. ... Minnesota LW Jason Zucker continues to practice as he recovers from a concussion suffered Feb. 21. ... Leafs RW P.A. Parenteau missed his third game because of an upper-body injury. ... RW Brad Boyes missed his first game with an upper-body injury suffered in Toronto's 3-2 loss on Wednesday in Washington. As a result, Toronto recalled LW Brendan Leipsic on an emergency basis. ... The Maple Leafs continue their four-game home stand on Saturday against Ottawa while the Wild's brief two-game road trip takes them to Buffalo.