Postgame Hat Trick: Wild 5, Senators 4 (OT)

Wild.com's Dan Myers gives three takeaways from the Wild's 5-4 overtime win against the Ottawa Senators at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul on Tuesday night:

1. Kirill the Thrill returns
In search of his first goal of the season, Kirill Kaprizov seemed like a guy who was destined to score it on Tuesday night.
Turns out, those that predicted he would were spot on ... and it couldn't come at a bigger time.
Tweet from @mnwildScribe: TOLD YA https://t.co/IZTSExqCyb
With the game knotted at 4-4 in overtime, Kaprizov finished off a nifty pass from Kevin Fiala with a big one-timer blast past Senators goaltender Filip Gustavsson for his third career overtime winner.
"I think he said to [assistant coaches] [Bob Woods] or [Brett McLean] after the game, it feels like his first goal ever," said Wild coach Dean Evason. "He's pretty excited obviously. It's one thing for him to be excited but to see his teammates that's exciting for us."
Kaprizov put in a workman-like effort on Tuesday, playing a tough, gritty game for much of the evening. The sense of an impending winner came with about five minutes left in regulation when he went between his legs to try and score a goal.
The move was executed flawlessly, but Gustavsson was there to make the stop. Nonetheless, that showed just how confident he was feeling at that particular moment.

"Nobody on the team was worried about him," said Wild forward Nico Sturm. "We knew it was coming."
Apparently, Sturm really had a feeling. He relayed a story of how he and Kaprizov were the next two forwards up to hit the ice in overtime. Tasked by Evason to decide who would go out first when the next guy came to the bench, Sturm tapped Kaprizov and told him to take it.
A few moments later, Freddy Gaudreau came off for a line change and Kaprizov hopped over the boards. Just 13 seconds after that, the puck was in the back of the Ottawa net.
"I knew he had one in him tonight," Sturm insisted. "And I'm sure he'll score a couple more this year."

2. Add 'em up
Congratulations are in order for Wild defenseman Calen Addison, who tallied his first NHL goal in his fifth official NHL game on Tuesday night.
Addison's goal in the first period gave Minnesota a 2-0 lead and came just 27 seconds after Marcus Foligno an early advantage.

For Addison, who debuted in the NHL last season and played in three regular season games, he's been up with the big club because of an injury sustained by Alex Goligoski before the team's game in Seattle. Jon Lizotte played the first game against the Kraken, but Addison has played the past two and doesn't look at all out of place.
"I always kind of say this, just day-to-day, I just try and take it one day at a time and do the best I can and help the team win," Addison said. "I'm happy with how I'm playing, I'm just trying to keep going and like I said, just try to get two points every night."

The goal came on an emotional night for Addison, as the Wild celebrated Hockey Fights Cancer Awareness Night seven years to the day after the passing of his grandfather, Alec, who succumbed to cancer in 2014.
"To get my first goal on that night is pretty special," Addison said. "That one's for him for sure."

As Goligoski inches closer to full health - perhaps as soon as this weekend in Pittsburgh (Saturday) or against the New York Islanders (Sunday) - it'll be interesting to see if Addison has done enough to stick around and get a longer look.
"It's going to be tough right? But Addy conducted himself extremely well," Evason said. "He's such a calm person and a calm player. He handles the puck well and doesn't panic on the back end. And he gives us an offensive flair."
3. Dressed to the nines
The victory over Ottawa marks the ninth consecutive victory in the series between the clubs. That ties a franchise record for longest win streak against a club, equalled against Anaheim (also an active win streak), Chicago, Arizona and Montreal.
But this was no gimme, even though it looked like it might be.
Minnesota led 2-0 and forced Ottawa to take an incredibly rare early timeout less than five minutes into the game. Evason gathered the troops on the bench and relayed a message about a game the Wild played just last week.

"Our message was Seattle. We got up in that Seattle game 1-0. We played super well for 8-10 minutes. Then I think we thought it might be that way the rest of the night," Evason said. "We said, 'This is the same type of time. This group's not stopping.' [McLean] actually came to me and was like, 'It's just like Seattle.' I said, 'You yell at that end and we'll yell at this end.' Just to warn them that this isn't over. And it wasn't clearly. They just kept pushing."
Ottawa made it 2-1 shortly thereafter before Sturm's goal later in the frame gave Minnesota a two-goal lead at intermission.
It didn't take the Sens long to erase that deficit, then take a brief lead; all of 7:48 to be exact, as Drake Batherson, Josh Norris and Chris Tierney tallied consecutive goals 5 1/2 minutes apart in the second.

Batherson's was challenged by the Wild for the puck being played by a high stick earlier in the shift, but after a lengthy review, the call was allowed to stand.
Because the call went against Minnesota, Ottawa got a power play, and 71 seconds into the man advantage, Norris scored through the five hole of Cam Talbot.
Four minutes later, Tierney got a greasy one that was initially waved off for being intentionally re-directed into the cage off his arm. That call was reversed - rightfully - after it was determined Tierney was simply trying to get out of the way of a fluttering puck.

The two calls put the Wild in a hole, but Foligno helped Minnesota bounce back less than three minutes later when he potted a nice feed from Matt Dumba for his second of the night.
The goal was his second power-play goal of the season, which already ties his career high.

"Just came to the realization that we're beating ourselves up. I mean, really, we're not getting beat by Ottawa," Foligno said. "There's a lot of things, a lot of d-zone, we're not urgent, we're not trying to hit guys, we're not trying to poke check guys, we're letting them skate around and that's when they're good. They're a skilled team. They're very highly skilled. Some great players on that team.
"We just need to understand that we need to be nasty. We need to be aggressive and desperate. We saw that in the first. We saw that in the third. We're lucky right now that it's two periods of good play that's getting these wins. When we play against some tougher teams that might not be the case."

Neither team scored in the third despite a 19-9 shots advantage for the Wild, setting up Kaprizov's overtime heroics.
"I don't think we played a perfect game today, by all means. But it's an 82-game season. You're not going to have it every night, and you gotta find a way to win those games when you're not playing your best," Sturm said. "I still think we were the better team, deserved to win though."

Loose pucks

• Spurgeon tallied an assist on Foligno's goal in the first, his 200th career even-strength point. He's the second Wild defenseman to reach the milestone (Ryan Suter)
• Kulikov assisted on Sturm's first-period marker, his third helper in eight games played this season. He had four assists 48 games with New Jersey and Edmonton last season
• Minnesota is 6-0-0 in one-goal games this season
• Matt Dumba had an assist on Foligno's second goal and leads all Wild defensemen with six points (five assists)
• Kaprizov assisted on Addison's goal, his club-leading seventh helper
• Every Wild defenseman tallied a point on Tuesday, with Addison scoring the lone goal
• Fiala had a pair of assists
• Talbot finished with 24 saves on 28 shots to improve to 6-2-0 on the year
• Batherson and Norris finished with a goal and an assist apiece for Ottawa
• Sens defenseman Michael Del Zotto had two assists
• Gustavsson stopped 38 of 43 shots faced

Dan's three stars

1. Kirill Kaprizov
   2. Marcus Foligno
   3. Calen Addison

Highlights