Postgame Hat Trick: Wild 7, Canadiens 1

Wild.com's Dan Myers gives three takeaways from the Wild's 7-1 win against the Montreal Canadiens at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul on Tuesday night:

1. Minnesota opened its homestand in style.
After a disastrous ending to a three-game Canadian trip, including a 7-2 loss in Edmonton on Friday, the Wild turned the tables by putting up a touchdown (and an extra point) of its own back in St. Paul.
Matt Dumba scored twice and Mikael Granlund and Zach Parise each had three-point nights to lead the offensive attack, while Devan Dubnyk answered the bell in goal, making saves.

Nino Niederreiter, Jared Spurgeon and Ryan Suter each chipped in with two-point efforts as the Wild had 11 of its 18 skaters find the scoresheet with at least one point.

The Wild has now won eight consecutive games against the Canadiens, including each of the past six at Xcel Energy Center.
2. The Parise-Coyle-Niederreiter line was rolling early.
With Mikko Koivu missing his second-straight game because of a lower-body injury, the newly constructed line had no fewer than three odd-man rushes in the first 10 minutes of the contest.
Sure enough, it broke through at 14:01 of the first when a Jonas Brodin shot from the point was deflected five hole by Niederreiter, putting the Wild ahead for good.

It was a lead it wouldn't surrender the rest of the night.
At one point or another, all three players on the line scored one goal, with Coyle's pretty short-handed goal in the second giving Minnesota a 3-0 lead and Parise's power-play marker on a breakaway extending the Wild advantage to 7-1 in the third.

3. How about those special teams?
Minnesota scored four times on the power play while its penalty kill negated Montreal's lone power play and even scored a goal of its own.
The four power-play goals was the most by the Wild in a single game this season and tied for most by any team in the NHL this year.
In all, five of Minnesota's seven goals were scored on one specialty team or another.