Pitlick scores first three NHL goals, Wild defeat Kraken

SEATTLE --Rem Pitlick scored his first three NHL goals in a natural hat trick for the Minnesota Wild in a 4-2 win against the Seattle Kraken at Climate Pledge Arena on Saturday.

It was Pitlick's 16th NHL game and fifth with the Wild after the forward was claimed off waivers from the Nashville Predators on Oct. 5.
"I'm super grateful, it's been a whirlwind just coming to Minnesota and scoring my first and then getting three like that's it's really special," Pitlick said. "It's a big wild super dream and [Ryan Hartman] assists on all three of them. Just the plays that he made, I think the last two he intercepted both of those pucks. 'Wow', that's all I can say."
Cam Talbot made 28 saves, and Hartman had three assists for Minnesota (10-4-0), which equaled the best 14-game start in its history (2015-16, 2006-07, 2002-03).
"Stressing to make sure we just continue to play every shift for 60 minutes," Hartman said. "I don't think we played the full 60, we gave up a couple chances. Maybe a few minutes there. We were there in our own end but overall it is a good team win."
Alex Wennberg and Marcus Johansson each had a goal and an assist for the Kraken (4-10-1), who lost their fourth straight. Philipp Grubauer made 18 saves.
"You're not going to come out against this team and generate a ton of offense," Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said. "The key there is also not giving up a ton of offense and we didn't give up very much. But what we did, the breakaways in the in the second period, are plays that are too easy to give up to that opposition."

Pitlick gave the Wild a 1-0 lead with his first NHL goal at 12:33 of the first period when he tipped in a cross-ice pass from Hartman.
Minnesota made it 2-0 when Pitlick skated in alone on Grubauer to score at 7:44 of the second period.
Pitlick completed the hat trick at 19:20 of the second to make it 3-0. Hartman stole the puck in the Wild end and made a pass up ice to Pitlick.
"[Hartman's] another guy you can't say enough about," Talbot said. "Does it for us all offensively, wins face-offs in the D zone, killing penalties. He's kind of a Swiss Army knife, you can put them out in any situation and you're comfortable with him out there. So another guy that's done a lot for us so far."
Johansson scored his first for the Kraken on the power play to make it 3-1 at 9:19 of the third period. He played last season for the Wild.
"We had a good push at the start of the third," Hakstol said. "We had at least five good chances probably in the first three or four minutes of the period. It tightened up from there, but we had real good chances to start the third period, couldn't get one of those to go."
Nico Sturm scored an empty-net goal at 14:54 to make it 4-1.
Wennberg scored a 6-on-5 goal with 1:01 left for the 4-2 final.
Pitlick is the first Wild player and the 31st in NHL history to get a hat trick in the same game that he scored his first NHL goal. He had four assists in his previous 15 NHL games.
"It's hard to put into words, ever since I got here, I just felt like a certain energy," said Pitlick, who played college hockey for the University of Minnesota. "There's so much movement and finding, it's hard to explain. It's very subtle."
NOTES: The Wild are tied with the New York Rangers for the NHL lead with six road wins. … Pitlick's hat trick is the second at Climate Pledge Arena. Seattle forward Jordan Eberle scored the first against the Buffalo Sabres on Nov. 4. … Forward Colin Blackwell had one shot on goal in 9:24 in his first game for the Kraken after missing 14 games with a lower-body injury.