Postgame Hat Trick: Wild 8, Canadiens 2

Wild.com's Dan Myers gives three takeaways from the Wild's 8-2 win against the Montreal Canadiens at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul on Monday night:

1. Still streakin'
Minnesota ran its point streak to seven games and its winning streak to three in a dominating performance. Save for the first couple of minutes, where the Canadiens actually scored the first goal of the game, the Wild controlled the game virtually the entire way.

After Mike Hoffman scored 83 seconds into the game, the Wild tied it up on a goal by Jared Spurgeon less than two minutes later. Marcus Foligno added one six minutes after that to give the Wild a lead it wouldn't relinquish.

In fact, it would only build on it.
Connor Dewar made it 3-1 at 4:01 of the second and Nico Sturm would find a home on the backdoor and finish off a double deflection just 22 seconds after that to push the Wild lead to three goals.

It looked like it would go to intermission at 4-1, but Mats Zuccarello finished off a Kirill Kaprizov feed below the right circle by picking a corner and banking the puck off the noggin of Habs goaltender Cayden Primeau with 30 seconds left before intermission.

It was elementary from there, as the Wild closed out its eighth consecutive home victory over Montreal. Once again, the Wild answered a Habs goal early in the period with a couple of their own, quickly ending any hopes of a miracle comeback.

"We're never out of it. We've got the lines that can do it. And we don't sit in the dressing room and sulk or on the bench even then we're already down one. I mean, it doesn't matter," said Wild defenseman Jordie Benn. "We got a lot of time left and doesn't matter if there's 30 to the 19th minute in the third period, we still have a chance."
About the only downer for the Wild was the departure of goaltender Cam Talbot, who was playing in his first game back after sustaining a lower-body injury in the Winter Classic.

Talbot stopped 14 of 15 shots before exiting and Evason said afterward that he doesn't think Talbot's injury should be too concerning moving forward.
Talbot is scheduled to play in his first All-Star Game in less than two weeks.
"He tweaked the same injury, but not the same spot," Evason said. "Not serious, but why put him back in? That was our thought process. He definitely could've went.
"You're always concerned. You're always concerned. Let's see how he comes out of it tomorrow."
2. Still streakin' (part 2)
Within the Wild's stretch of once-again solid play, Minnesota has a number of big-time players making big-time contributions.
Kaprizov had a pair of assists and if not for his missed game against the Washington Capitals earlier this month, he'd have a nine-game point streak. At the very least, he's tallied a point in each of the past nine games he's played in, and during that stretch, he now has 17 points (7-10=17).

His second assist was his 100th NHL point in his 92nd game, making him by far the fastest to reach the century mark in a Wild sweater, besting Brian Rolston's previous record of 105 games.
Each of the first nine names after Kaprizov are veterans who had NHL experience in other cities before arriving ... Marian Gaborik is No. 10 and is the first "homegrown" name on the list. It took him 147 games to eclipse 100 career points.

Per NHL stats, Kaprizov became the fifth active player to reach 100 career points in 92 games or fewer. His company in that department ain't bad: Alex Ovechkin (77 games), Sidney Crosby (80), Evgeni Malkin (89) and Connor McDavid (92).
His partner in crime Zuccarello had a goal and an assist and also pushed his personal point streak to nine games. He's got multiple points in five consecutive games, becoming the second player in franchise history to do so (Kevin Fiala).

Speaking of Fiala, he extended his own point streak to nine games with a third-period assist. Per Wild PR, Fiala and Zuccarello are the fifth pair of teammates in the NHL this season to each record point streaks of nine-plus games. If either or both hit the scoresheet in New York on Friday, they would equal the second-longest point streak in club history.
3. Dewey dents the scoresheet
Dewar's second-period goal was the game winner for Minnesota. It was also his first NHL goal in his 11th NHL game, a big accomplishment for the one-time third-round pick in the 2018 NHL Draft.
It was a nice reward for Dewar, who has been better and better in earning himself a more permanent role in the lineup since the Wild waived Rem Pitlick earlier this month.

Fittingly, the two guys who mobbed him after his first NHL goal were his linemates Nico Sturm and Brandon Duhaime. The trio came up together through the Wild system and spent plenty of time together in Iowa, with Dewar and Duhaime often playing together on the same line.
"I'm so happy for him. To see him ... when I was down in Iowa two years ago, there were some nights when he wasn't even in the lineup," Sturm said. "And to see how far he's come and how hard he's worked I couldn't be happier for him. To be a part of that goal makes me proud. And for us as a line most nights there's not a lot of glory in the kind of game that we play. It feels good for all of us."

Dewar, who entered with one assist in 10 games, returned the favor 22 seconds later when he earned an assist on a Sturm goal.
Both Dewar and Sturm had multi-point nights and Duhaime, who was originally credited with an assist that was later awarded to Alex Goligoski, finished the night a plus-3.
"It's fun ... and we used to joke about, 'when we're in the league,' and I thought it was very fitting that it was those two were the first guys to hug me when I scored tonight," Dewar said. "I've kind of taken pride in my whole career I think. Every time you see me play, I'm a better player, every day. That's the way I want to try."

Loose pucks

• The Wild tied a franchise record for the sixth time by scoring eight goals
• Sturm's three-point night was a career high and just the third multi-point game of his NHL career
• Benn scored his first goal in a Wild sweater
• Matt Boldy tallied his third goal in seven games
• Goligoski had two assists, his sixth multi-point game of the season
• Spurgeon had two points for his fifth multi-point effort of the year
• Pitlick, claimed on waivers by Montreal from Minnesota, scored the other Habs goal
• Cayden Primeau made 27 saves on 32 shots through 40 minutes before being lifted at the start of the third
• Michael McNiven allowed three goals on seven shots in relief of Primeau
• Kaapo Kahkonen made five saves in the third period in place of Talbot

Dan's three stars

1. Nico Sturm
   2. Connor Dewar
   3. Jared Spurgeon

Highlights