Postgame Hat Trick: Wild 3, Ducks 2

On Wednesday night, the Wild scored a 3-2 victory over the Anaheim Ducks at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.
Wild.com's Dan Myers provides three takeaways in the Postgame Hat Trick, presented by Associated Bank. Learn more on how to score up to $500 by opening a Wild Checking account.

1. Permission to redirect.
Wild captain Jared Spurgeon entered the day with one goal on the season, one that he just scored four games ago against the Arizona Coyotes.
He had two in the first period on Wednesday, scoring them in very similar ways.
At the 7:46 mark of the period, Spurgeon worked himself down to the slot, where defensive partner Ryan Suter spotted him, and placed a perfect pass onto the blade of his stick for a quick redirection past Ryan Miller for a 1-0 lead.

The Ducks tied the score on the very next shift, but late in the period, Minnesota's 31st-ranked power play took to the ice and capitalized, as Spurgeon scored from almost an identical spot. This one wasn't designed like the first - Spurgeon was serving more as a screen than he was an open man - but his tip of Suter's point shot got the puck past Miller for his third of the season.
Spurgeon has turned around his season after a rocky beginning. Through 19 games, he had just four assists and was a minus-4.
Over the past 11, he has three goals, two assists and a plus-5. Minnesota's defensive core is already rock solid, and with Spurgeon clicking on all cylinders, the Wild's backend is even more special.
2. Suter is Minnesota's milestone man.
A number of players have reached career milestones through the first half of the season, but it was another veteran who got one on Wednesday.

Suter's two assists in the first period gave him 11 on the season, with the second serving as his 600th NHL point.
In reaching 600 points, Suter becomes the 41st defenseman in NHL history, the fifth active player, to reach the milestone.
3. Nico Sturm got a gift.
The German-born rookie forward won't celebrate his birthday for a few more weeks, but Miller served up the 25-year-old with an early present seven minutes into the second period.
In the box score, Sturm scored his fourth of the season from Nick Bjugstad and Carson Soucy. But that doesn't tell the whole story.

Bjugstad's "pass" came from about 150 feet from the net on what appeared to be an innocent dump-in on the Anaheim net. The bouncing puck was mishandled by Miller and squirted free to Sturm, who - and credit where credit is due - was doing his due diligence on the forecheck.
With the puck loose, Sturm reached, almost shocked by his stroke of good fortune, to poke the loose puck past Miller.