Postgame Hat Trick: Wild 6, Kraken 3

Wild.com's Dan Myers gives three takeaways from the Wild's 6-3 win against the Seattle Kraken at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul on Friday night:

1. Stars shining bright
Kevin Fiala keeps doing Kevin Fiala things, but went to a new level on Thursday evening, dishing out a franchise record five assists.
"Everything I touched, it went in I felt like, especially in the second period," Fiala said. "So it was a nice game."
Understatement of the year, maybe.
"I don't think I have had any five assist games," Fiala said. "It was a special night for sure."

Indeed, it was. And it's been a special run. Fiala now has a nine-game point streak where he's scored nine goals and added 12 assists. If he was the NHL's Second Star of the Week last week, imagine what could be in store this time around.
With the way he's going, Fiala has gotta be getting sick of the Twin Cities media. He's a must-interview every night. That's four-straight multi-point games and six in the past seven overall.

"I'm really happy for him. I'm glad his game has taken off and he's had some really key moments in the last couple games coming through clutch," Wild forward Kirill Kaprizov said through a translator. "He's peaking at the right time, so generally really happy for him. He's on a hot streak and I hope it continues."
Kaprizov scored a goal and added three assists to reach, and quickly blow by the 100-point mark this season. Remember when he bested Marian Gaborik's old franchise record of 83 points in a season like two weeks ago?
Reaching 100 then seemed like a stretch, but is 110 possible? Can't count anything out now, can you?
"Yeah to be honest, I wasn't really thinking about it," Kaprizov said. "I'm glad it happened and obviously I'm very happy to accomplish it."
Kaprizov joins a select list of Russian-born players to reach 100, a list that includes Alex Ovechkin, Nikita Kucherov, Evgeni Malkin, Pavel Bure, Sergei Fedorov and Alexander Mogilny.
Artemi Panarin, who has 96 points this season, could join the group, but he'll do so after Kaprizov, who has tallied the 15th-most points in a season by any Russian-born player in NHL history.
"Of course it's a huge accomplishment to be a part of that list. I think at the end of the day, I want to continue to keep this momentum going, continue to progress and get better," Kaprizov said. "Early in the season, there were a couple of games where I wasn't producing and thank God the team was still winning and the rest of the team was playing well. For me, obviously it's a huge accomplishment and I'm so thankful to be on a list with such greats, but at the end of the day, we need to focus. We have playoffs coming up and it's about getting better every single game and continuing this momentum."

Fiala became the third player this season to reach 50 assists, which used to be a franchise record.
Kaprizov's three assists moved him past Mats Zuccarello's ongoing (previous) team record of 55. Zuccarello sustained a lower-body injury in the second period and did not return. He won't join the team in Nashville on Sunday, but Wild coach Dean Evason insisted it was more a time-of-the-year thing than a severity thing.
"You just sometimes catch yourself watching them," said Wild forward Joel Eriksson Ek. "Even on the bench, when you see Kevin play with this much confidence, when he doesn't really stress about things, he's so good. You watch him and go, 'Oh, my God. How can he do that?' It's really impressive for him, when he has this confidence, he doesn't really force plays, and that's when he plays his best."
2. Quietly into the night
In perhaps the quietest two-goal, three-point night in franchise history, Eriksson Ek snapped a nine-game goal drought in style on Friday, breaking the seal for Minnesota late in the first period then tying the game 2:04 into the second period.
"We didn't think we were bad in the first. We just thought they were really good," Evason said. "We made some mistakes, the most poor pinches that we had all year and that led obviously to one of the goals. But the group regrouped and we were able to come out with a real good second period."

The goals were the first for Eriksson Ek since he scored twice in Washington on April 3, a game where he also had ... two goals and an assist.
Overall, it snapped a seven-game points drought for Eriksson Ek, who is in the midst of a career year offensively regardless of how the last couple weeks have gone. He's up to 23 goals and 21 assists after dishing out a helper on Kaprizov's goal, which gave the Wild its first lead 6:52 into the second.

It is hard to believe the Wild actually trailed in this game at one point, and actually trailed by a couple of goals 10:20 into the game.
Still, the vibe inside Xcel Energy Center was one of quiet calm, like an offensive storm was just expected to arrive ... and arrive it did.

"Getting the power play goal, of course, helped us get back into the game. Our start was slow. We didn't really make the best decisions, from us forwards, jumping into the play, or from our defense pinching at the wrong times," Eriksson Ek said. "But I think in the second, we got going. We played better as a team and then stayed together and supported each other."
3. Re-writing the record book
In addition to Kaprizov's 100 points and Fiala's 50 assists, the Wild established even more franchise history as a team with the victory, winning it's 50th game of the season for the very first time.
It's 107 points is also a franchise record.

Keep in mind, four games remain before the end of the regular season, and three of those will come at home, where the Wild is 12-0-1 over its past 13 contests and 29-6-2 on the season.
One more win in the final three home contests would break the record for home wins in a season. The 13-game point streak is tied for longest in Wild history as well.
Minnesota's multi-goal comeback win was its ninth of the season, which is tops in the NHL. It's just the 11th team over the past 15 years to post nine multi-goal comebacks in a single campaign.

Loose pucks

• Minnesota has scored three-plus goals in 18 of its past 20 games, boasting a plus-29 goal differential since March 16
• The Wild ran its overall point streak to nine games (7-0-2) and is 16-1-3 since March 16, leading the NHL in both points (35) and wins during that span
• Minnesota's five second-period goals tied for second-most in a single period in team history
• Marc-Andre Fleury finished with 25 saves and improved to 7-1-0 in eight starts with the Wild, with a 2.64 goals-against average and a .918 save percentage
• Eriksson Ek's three-point game was the fourth of his career
• Zuccarello's goal was his seventh power-play goal of the season, which tied a career high
• Daniel Sprong, Yanni Gourde and Matty Beniers tallied goals for the Kraken
• Beniers has one point in each of his first five NHL games
• Goaltender Philipp Grubauer stopped 29 of 35 shots in defeat

Dan's three stars

1. Kevin Fiala
   2. Kirill Kaprizov
   3. Joel Eriksson Ek

Highlights