SAINT PAUL, Minn. -- In previous seasons, the Minnesota Wild had a habit of slumping in December. Those troubles are apparently in the past.

On Tuesday, Zach Parise's first goal of the month got things rolling early for Minnesota and a quartet of his teammates chipped in as the Wild hammered the Florida Panthers 5-1, running their winning streak to five games.

Devan Dubnyk stopped 29 Florida shots, while Erik Haula, Eric Staal, Mikko Koivu and Jason Zucker added Wild goals, improving to 16-8-4 overall. Minnesota is now 8-0-2 all-time at home vs. the Panthers.

"I thought we were pretty opportunistic, especially early," Wild coach Bruce Boudreau said. "You take three penalties in the first 10 minutes, a lot of guys don't get on the ice, so it takes them a while to get going. We got opportunities and we put them in. They weren't bad goals. It wasn't like Roberto (Luongo) didn't stop them. They were good shots that beat him."

Xcel Energy Center continued to be a house of horrors for the Panthers starting goalie Luongo, who had a dozen saves on 17 shots, falling to 3-12-3 all-time in Minnesota's home rink. He headed to the locker room after Zucker scored Minnesota's fifth goal, and James Reimer finished the game in goal for the Panthers (13-13-4) with five saves. It was the fourth time in Luongo's last seven starts in Minnesota that he has been pulled. Panthers interim head coach Tom Rowe reacted strongly when asked about Luongo's struggles in Minnesota.

"I'm not even going to answer that," Rowe said. "He's a great goaltender, one of the best in the world, so...he's been unbelievable for us."

The Panthers only goal came in the final minutes of the game, when a long-range shot by defenseman Dylan McIlrath ended Dubnyk's bid for a shutout. It was the first goal of the season for McIlrath, who had fights with Chris Stewart and Kurtis Gabriel earlier in the game.

"We need to keep climbing," Dubnyk said, with a nod to the tight Central Division race. "It's exciting to be in this spot with games at hand as well and again those games don't matter unless we win them but it's still a good situation to be in and winning is fun so you just got to keep doing it."

The Panthers had a decided 13-5 advantage in shots in the opening period, thanks in part to a trio of power plays, but emerged down by a goal. Parise's wrist shot from the left circle eluded Luongo's glove. It was the fifth goal of the season for Parise.

"I tried to shoot the puck a little more and get to the net a little more, lately," he said. "I've had better chances lately. They haven't gone in. Fortunately, that one went in for me."

Looking back, Panthers players said the first period was the missed opportunity.

"Power plays we've got to score. That's a game-changer," said Florida center Nick Bjugstad. "We gave up way too many odd-man rushes to leave Luongo out to dry. I think that was the main key."

Haula doubled the Minnesota lead early in the second period, popping in a shot from the hashmarks after a pass from Nino Niederreiter. Luongo had been pulled out of position by the Minnesota rush to the net, leaving Haula a mostly open goalmouth.

Florida appeared to cut the lead in half near the midway point of the game when a shot by Kyle Rau from the high slot deflected off Dubnyk's right leg pad and into the upper left corner of the net. Wild coach Bruce Boudreau challenged the play, and replays showed that Panthers center Derek MacKenzie had been a stride offside entering the zone, negating the goal.

Barely a minute later, Jason Pominville's lead pass sprung Staal on a breakaway. Luongo made a blocker save on the initial shot, but Staal was able to poke the rebound over the goal line for a 3-0 Minnesota lead.

NOTES: Wild D Christian Folin returned to the lineup on Tuesday after missing the previous seven games with a lower body injury. ... The first-ever meeting between the Panthers and Wild, on Oct. 22, 2000 in St. Paul, ended in a 0-0 tie with Florida's Roberto Luongo (20 saves) and Minnesota's Jamie McLennan (24 saves) each earning a shutout. ... On Tuesday, Minnesota recalled LW Teemu Pulkkinen from their Iowa AHL team, but he was not in the lineup versus Florida. He has one goal in eight games with the Wild this season. ... On this day in 1994, Met Center, which was the original home of pro hockey in Minnesota, was imploded to make way for an IKEA store. The 15,000-seat building in suburban Bloomington, Minn., was home of the Minnesota North Stars for 26 seasons, before they relocated to Dallas. Panthers RW Jaromir Jagr is the NHL's only active player to have skated in a game there.