Postgame Hat Trick: Wild 4, Red Wings 1

Wild.com's Dan Myers gives three takeaways from the Wild's 4-1 win against the Detroit Red Wings at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul on Sunday night:

1. Nobody calls their shot better on Twitter than former Wild forward and current FOX Sports North analyst Wes Walz, taking in the game from the press box on Sunday with the game nationally televised.
With Minnesota down a goal seven minutes into the second period, Walz fired off this tweet:

Literally five seconds after it hit timelines, Eric Staal deflected a shot by Jared Spurgeon past Red Wings goaltender Jimmy Howard, tying the game at 1 and putting his nearly undefeated track record to the test.
Sure enough, less than three minutes later, Minnesota entered the Detroit zone with numbers as Nino Niederreiter passed to Mikko Koivu, who fired the puck over to Zach Parise, who scored off a pretty re-direction. The final count: 2 minutes, 53 seconds after Staal's goal.
This isn't just a one-time thing either.
Consider this from just one week ago:

That came after a first period in which the Sharks outshot Minnesota 17-10 and led 1-0 after 20 minutes.
The Wild responded by outshooting San Jose 31-11 the rest of the way, and playing perhaps its best 40 minutes of the season, with only Sharks goaltender Martin Jones standing in the way of a Minnesota blowout victory. The Wild eventually won 3-2 in overtime.
Then there's this one, where he wasn't able to even finish the tweet before his premonition came true:

One thing is certain: if Walz tweets it, it's probably coming true. Ignore at your own peril.
2. Devan Dubnyk had a rock solid bounce back game on Sunday.
After a tough night in Colorado, the Wild goaltender was especially good in the first period, as the Wild was outshot 11-5 and seemed to have trouble finding its legs early.
Dubnyk stopped 10 of 11 shots that period with only one eluding him, after an unfortunate bounce following a gutsy shot block by Nate Prosser ended up right on the tape of Justin Abdelkader.
Dubnyk stopped nine more shots in the second, including a couple of biggies in the moments after Parise's goal gave Minnesota the lead.
In the third, he made a large save on Gustav Nyquist during a Red Wings power play after Nyquist split four guys and got in alone for a prime chance.
He finished the contest with 28 saves in improving to 28-12-5 on the season.
3. The victory moved Minnesota back into third in the Central Division standings.
Back-to-back losses in Arizona and Colorado, combined with Dallas' 3-2 win against the Blues on Saturday, vaulted the Stars ahead of the Wild in the standings based on overall victories.
But the win Sunday for the Wild moved Minnesota two points ahead of Dallas and kept pace with the second-place Winnipeg Jets, who won in Carolina on Sunday. Minnesota trails the Jets by six points.
Related:
- Watch: Staal uses skate for PPG - Watch: Parise beats Howard on the rush