Postgame Hat Trick: Wild 2, Capitals 1

Wild.com's Dan Myers gives three takeaways from the Wild's 2-1 win against the Washington Capitals at Capital One Arena in Washington on Friday night:

1. For the first time in nine tries, the Wild defeated the Capitals.
Once again, it took a tremendous 60-minute effort to do it. While Minnesota has struggled on home ice this season, it showed once again that when its on the road, it can beat anyone.
The win over the Stanley Cup champions has given the Wild wins at Calgary, at Tampa Bay and at Washington in the month of March alone. Along with a win at Winnipeg in its final game of February, Minnesota has managed to score wins in four of the toughest barns the NHL has to offer.
Luke Kunin scored the game-winning goal with 7:35 remaining, breaking a 1-1 tie.

Wild goaltender Devan Dubnyk was spectacular as well, finishing with 21 saves
The win moved Minnesota alone into the second wild card position in the Western Conference, one point clear of both Arizona and Colorado, who were each idle on Friday. The Wild is three points back of Dallas for the top wild-card spot. All three of those teams have one game in hand.
2. Minnesota deserved better in the second period.
The Wild played one of its best 20-minute stanzas of the season, but somehow came out on the short end of the stick.
After getting out of the first period with a 1-0 lead, the Wild had several chances to extend its lead. Just shy of the halfway point, Brad Hunt, Luke Kunin and Zach Parise all had grade-A chances to make it 2-0 or even 3-0. But Braden Holtby was there on one chance, the puck rolled off Parise's stick blade on another and Kunin whipped a shot off the left post.
Moments after Kunin and Parise just missed, the Caps tied the game on a deflected point shot by Brett Connolly.
Connolly's goal was the only one by either team despite Minnesota outshooting Washington 15-9, owning a 33-17 advantage in shot attempts and a 9-5 edge in scoring chances, according to naturalstattrick.com.
3. Ryan Donato will forever be the answer to a trivia question.
His assist on Jordan Greenway's goal late in the first period was the 10,000th point in Wild franchise history. It was a pretty good effort by both rookie forwards, as Donato freed the puck in the neutral zone. Greenway took it from there, gaining control, possessing it around Tom Wilson and going strong to the front of the net, here he deked around Holtby and fired into the goal for his 12th tally of the season.

Of the first 10,000 points, 3,687 were goals and 6,213 were assists. Dubnyk earned the second assist on the play, getting the Wild started on its trek towards 20,000.