Postgame Hat Trick: Wild 2, Blue Jackets 1

Wild.com's Phil Ervin gives three takeaways from the Wild's 2-1 win against the Columbus Blue Jackets at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul on Thursday night:

1. In a tight-checking, low-chance contest, the Wild's defensive M.O. proved the difference.
Minnesota killed off three of four penalties and made life relatively easy in front of embattled goaltender Devan Dubnyk. The All-Star neminder earned his first win in nine days, making X saves and rarely facing a ton of traffic till the final minute with Sergei Bobrovsky sitting on the Blue Jackets' bench.
He thwarted perhaps Columbus' best scoring chance with a highlight-reel poke check on Josh Anderson midway through the third period.

2. Coach Bruce Boudreau's decision to put the Wild's newbies alongside star Zach Parise paid off with relative haste.
Swedish newcomers Pontus Aberg -- acquired Thursday from the Ducks -- and Victor Rask -- acquired Friday from the Hurricanes -- assisted on Parise's point-blank one-timer that made it 2-0 at 17:36 of the first period. Aberg and Rask have played together on past Swedish national teams, and who better to pair them with than the leading scorer among Minnesota-born NHLers on the state's hockey holiday?

It was Parise's seventh point on Hockey Day Minnesota and team-leading 42nd of the season. It was also a weight off the Bloomington native's shoulders after he tied a franchise record with a career-high 11 shots -- all futile -- in Thursday's 3-0 loss to Anaheim.
3. Hockey Day Minnesota continues to be good to the Wild.
Minnesota improved to 10-2-1 on Hockey Day and has won the past three matchups. A crowd of 19,054 capped the day-long celebration from Bemidji by taking in a game the Wild outshot, out-skated and largely out-played its opponent two days after falling to the Ducks two days earlier in a game that snapped Anaheim's 12-game losing streak.
The Wild is scheduled to practice Sunday in St. Paul before heading to Vegas for a 5 p.m. contest Monday, then to Colorado for an 8:30 p.m. start Wednesday.
That'll be the last outing till February as the All-Star break runs right into Minnesota's NHL-mandated bye week.