Postgame Hat Trick: Wild 4, Maple Leafs 3 (SO)

Wild.com's Dan Myers gives three takeaways from the Wild's 4-3 shootout win against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul on Saturday night:

1. A perfect 10
The Wild spent much of the first months and a half traversing North America, going to the West Coast several times and spending time in South Florida and New York City with several stops in between.
It's first real lengthy stay at home since the first week of the regular season came courtesy of a five-game homestand that began on Black Friday and concluded Saturday night with a battle of NHL heavyweights.
Minnesota had a chance to nab 10 points on the homestand, and by 9 o'clock Saturday, it had collected all 10 of those points.
Wild defenseman Matt Dumba was asked after the game just how crucial it was to sweep the homestand, and seemed taken aback by the fact that Minnesota had indeed just swept a five-game stretch at Xcel Energy Center.

"The boys were buzzing," Dumba said. "It's nice to be at home. It's great. It's one of those things, we kinda talked about it, where you get close to it, just cultivating that winning culture and believing that when you come to the rink you can win any game. That's where we are right now, we want to keep pushing forward."
Sweeping the homestand was no easy task either.
After throttling Winnipeg on Nov. 26 in a 7-1 score, the Wild came back two days later and defeated Tampa Bay. A dispatching of Arizona followed, then a win against an up-and-coming New Jersey club, setting the stage for Saturday's showdown featuring the top team in the East against the top team in the West.
The game lived up to the hype.
The Wild built a 3-0 lead, then watched the Leafs rally for three goals late in the second period, before a scoreless third and overtime sent these two evenly matched clubs into the shootout.

"I think we're definitely showing everyone and ourselves that we can play with anyone," said Wild forward Jordan Greenway. "We had a pretty big slip up in the second, and to find a way to come back in the third and overtime and stick with it and to not let that get us down, we actually found a way to create some more things in the third, overtime, and to eventually come out with a win ... I think it shows a lot of good characteristics about our squad."
With its homestand complete, the Wild will head to the road again for four games, where it will start the next trip with another stiff test: the Edmonton Oilers, who are step-for-step with Minnesota atop the Western Conference standings.
"Teams are coming to our building [and discovering[ it's not easy to play against the Wild," Dumba said. "I think you're going to start seeing that shift and hopefully that elevates our game."
2. Like a warm blanket
It seems like each of Minnesota's four lines has developed a bit of an identity.
Greenway, Marcus Foligno and Joel Eriksson Ek have been, for the better part of a year now, been Wild coach Dean Evason's "old reliable," a group that has been Minnesota's best, most consistent, most difficult to play against line he can deploy.

Even early this season, when Eriksson Ek played up in the lineup with Kirill Kaprizov and Mats Zuccarello, and when Greenway and Foligno were separated at times, Evason always knew he could come back with that group and he had the confidence they'd rediscover their old magic.
He was right.
Since putting that line back together last month, Greenway has played some of his best hockey of his NHL career. He was outstanding once again on Saturday night and was rewarded with a goal in the final minute of the first period.
Foligno was rewarded with a goal that put the Wild ahead 3-0 just shy of the midway point of the game.

Eriksson Ek was rewarded with two assists. All three finished a plus-2, no easy feat considering who they were tasked with defending on this night: a potent group of Maple Leafs forwards featuring Auston Matthews, William Nylander and John Tavares.
Matthews had two points on the night but both came on power-play conversions late in the second period. Nylander and Tavares were held off the scoresheet entirely. Matthews and Nylander were minus-2 while Tavares was minus-1.
"I wish they never got tired," Evason said. "Especially in the second period, we [would've] just [liked them to] stay on the ice, but they can't do that because they are doing the right things in all areas of the game and they're leading our group by what they're doing and showing that leadership quality.
"It's a great game by them basically every night. Yeah, that's a tough match [for them]. Obviously they missed a guy that made a difference on that line and that certainly worked in our favor but that line did still a great job."

Evason has rarely matched lines against opponents this season, choosing to roll all four at any time against any group. But he worked incredibly hard to get the Ek line against Toronto's big guns at 5-on-5.
"We know what we got to do to help this team win games and I think we created a lot on the forecheck just trying to get sticks in there and be a hard line to play," Eriksson Ek said. "I think today we clicked while on the forecheck and just getting pucks back and trying to be make it [difficult] to play against."
That line's key on this night - and most nights - is limiting opponents by forcing the issue in the Wild's offensive end. It's a lot easier to play defense against a potent line when you're forcing that group to play defense instead.

"Yeah, 100 percent, we don't want them to be stuck in our zone the whole night," Evason said. "They do the right things through the neutral zone. They simplify coming out. They're big strong, they get pucks in the neutral zone. Once they get in there, they hunt pucks.

"I think of Greeny's stick in particular here tonight. His stick was phenomenal. He was getting pucks with that length and we talk about his reach all the time. They're all three really big men that have really good reach, so it's hard to get pucks past them. So they were able to disrupt and turn pucks over and keep pucks in and once they get it on their tape it's hard to get off."
3. Kirill flips the script
After an incredibly even, well-played, entertaining game that had most of the 18,568 in attendance on their feet for large stretches of action, it was decided in a shootout.
Mats Zuccarello scored in the first round before Ondrej Kase missed wide. Kevin Fiala was stoned by Jack Campbell before Matthews scored an absolute beauty of his own to even things up.

That's when Kaprizov took the ice, using what looks like his go-to move, coming down the ice before flipping a little off-speed pitch into the upper right-hand corner.
In a day in age of guys rifling wristers bar down, picking corners, approaching with tons of speed and lacrosse-style goals, among so many other flashy plays, Kaprizov's simple approach to the shootout is deadly, especially when goaltenders are probably thinking the skilled winger is about to undress them with some ridiculous move.
It takes some serious swag to pull it off successfully. Heck, it takes swag to even be willing to try it.

"You gotta be Kirill," Dumba said with a smile on his face. "I can't do that s\\t."
Dumba's response was telling. He's no shrinking violet himself, and certainly doesn't lack confidence or swag. Evason, who scored a bunch of points in junior hockey before adapting into more of a grinding centerman to survive and thrive in the NHL, had no answer either.
"How the hell do I know?" Evason asked rhetorically. "How about Matthews too? I mean my gosh. Somebody said on the bench, 'well they got a special one, we got a special one.' Both of them were gorgeous goals. I don't know how you do that. It doesn't make any sense to me. Why not shoot five hole? That's what I do."
Kaprizov hasn't been in many shootouts yet in his NHL career; his attempt Saturday was his third of the season and fourth of his career. He's 2-for-4 in the shootout, but 2-for-2 with his little flip shot.
We'll see if he makes any changes, but why mess with success?

Loose pucks

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• The Wild's 35 points through 24 games is the best start in franchise history
• Foligno's goal was his 10th of the season, giving him three-straight 10-goal campaigns. He has five goals in the past eight games
• Eriksson Ek's multi-point game was the 12th of his career and third this season
• Kaprizov assisted on Zuccarello's second-period goal, extending his point streak to five games
• Zuccarello's power-play marker was his first on the man advantage this season. He has nine points in his past seven games played
• Wild goaltender Cam Talbot finished with 39 saves on 42 shots
• Toronto's Jason Spezza had two goals and one assist
• Morgan Rielly had three assists for the Leafs
• Maple Leafs goaltender Jack Campbell made 37 saves on 40 shots

Dan's three stars

1. Jordan Greenway
   2. Cam Talbot
   3. Jason Spezza

Highlights