Postgame Hat Trick: Wild 3, Senators 1

Wild.com's Dan Myers gives three takeaways from the Wild's 3-1 win against the Ottawa Senators at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul on Monday night:

1. It was better late than never for the Wild, who finished off the season sweep of the Senators.
In front of a late-arriving and snow-weary crowd, Minnesota got a goal 45 seconds in from Zach Parise, but couldn't extend the lead any further, despite a handful of quality chances.

Just shy of the halfway point of the contest, perhaps predictably, Matt Duchene evened the game on a breakaway goal, as the Wild and Sens went to the third knotted at a goal apiece.
Minnesota finally cashed in again at the 4:59 mark when Jason Zucker accepted a perfect pass from Mikael Granlund for a tap in near the left post.
"I think we're pretty desperate when you think about it," said Wild coach Bruce Boudreau. "We need the points. I don't think Ottawa does. We are looking at the scoreboard and seeing Colorado winning and other teams winning. You know this is a game you should be winning. So I think we pushed a little harder in the third."
Nearly six minutes later, Granlund was the beneficiary of a slick little pass from Matt Dumba as the Wild scored a crucial power-play goal that, finally, gave Minnesota some breathing room.

"It's tough. You don't want to let teams hang around and we had plenty of chances," Zucker said. "Typically, you need to push a little bit harder to make sure those go in, so they don't have a prayer there, and kind of start pushing them down a little bit further. It was nice to push, get that second goal in the third there, and push from there."
Alex Stalock, seeing his first start in nearly two weeks, was outstanding, making 37 saves for his second win of the season against Ottawa.
"To be able to see the puck off the stick, and not much traffic tonight where it was hitting a ton of stuff and sometimes it just happens like that," Stalock said. "The timing's great where no one's in front or they shoot it just before a screen or after a screen, it just happened to be one of those nights where I saw a lot of the pucks."

2. Minnesota stayed hot of late and has now secured at least a point in six consecutive games.
Despite going 4-0-2 during that stretch, it's been a slog to gain any ground in the standings. After Central Division teams went 8-0-1 during the Wild's bye week last week, those same teams have continued to find ways to get two points the past few days.
That's made getting wins more of a necessity than a convenience.
"Nobody else is losing. You have to win to 'stay up with the Joneses' type thing. It's not like it's a March thing. I mean the March thing is happening now. Who knows when it's going to end," Boudreau said. "I liken it to if this was golf, this would be like a Saturday where it's starting to be moving day and everybody is always gathered close together and then by Sunday the field spreads out a little bit. We want to be part of that field when it does spread out."
The Wild will have one more opportunity to move up the standings before the All-Star break when it plays at the defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday night, where it will look to finish off a season sweep of the Pens for a second-straight season.
"We're playing better. When you're playing better, the results are usually better. Hopefully we can keep it up and even be better," Granlund said. "We could probably make [our games] even more complete, but when you compare that to the beginning of the season, absolutely we're doing a better job the whole 60 minutes.
"I'm glad we're in these tight games. In the beginning of the season, we were giving them away and it's nice to get that one. We've been pretty good lately, so one more before the All-Star break."
3. Zucker extended his goal streak to four games with the eventual game winner in the third period.
His goal was very much like Parise's, with Zucker playing the starring role and Granlund doing his best Eric Staal impression by dishing him the puck.

"I don't think it's me. I think its everybody. You watch that play, it started with a great forecheck. Mikko pinches down on the wall, gets it behind the net to [Granlund]. We end up losing the puck and we forecheck hound again and it ends up [Granlund] makes a great pass. I think it was a bit of everything," Zucker said. "I think that's kind of been our game lately as a line. Staying with it and we're getting some chances. Not all of them are going in but if we persevere and keep pressing, keep pushing, they're going to go in."
Now with 19 goals, Zucker is tied with Staal for the team lead, a battle that seemingly went back and forth for several weeks earlier in the season.
Staal gained firm control of that battle when Zucker scored just one goal in a span of 16 games between Dec. 10 and Jan. 10, but the Vegas-raised product has caught fire of late.
Zucker now has points in five straight and has four goals and three assists in his past seven overall.
"More and more they are contributing points and they're still playing against the other team's best line," Boudreau said of the Zucker-Granlund-Mikko Koivu line. "It'll be interesting to see how they do next game."

Loose pucks

• Ottawa outshot Minnesota 38-36, powered by a 15-11 edge in the third period.
• Koivu, Ryan Suter and Daniel Winnik also finished with one assist for the Wild.
• Chris DiDomenico had the lone helper for Ottawa.
• Senators goaltender Mike Condon finished with 33 saves.
• Senators leading scorer Mark Stone missed the game because of a lower-body injury.
• Attendance: 18,907

He said it

"We know February and March, it's going to be a busy couple of months but we've got one more big game before break and then hopefully we get a little more rest before the final push." -- Wild goaltender Alex Stalock

They said it

"It's kinda anybody's game in the third period and they came out and were more desperate than us. I don't know where they are in the standings but they're always right in the mix. For a team like us that has games in hand, the right teams keep losing for us and we can't capitalize on it. It's frustrating." -- Senators forward Matt Duchene

Three stars

* Alex Stalock
\\ Mikael Granlund
\\* Joel Eriksson Ek