Postgame Hat Trick: Wild 5, Capitals 1

Wild.com's Dan Myers gives three takeaways from the Wild's 5-1 win against the Washington Capitals at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. on Sunday night:

1. Energized or exasperated?
It was a battle of contrasting schedules on Sunday night. The Wild was coming off a 3-1 win just 24 hours earlier in Raleigh.
The Capitals hadn't played a game in six days following a 5-1 loss to those same Hurricanes right here in Washington last Monday.
So would the Wild come out tired? Would the Caps have to kick off some rust?
The answer to those questions was absolutely not ... and maybe?

Minnesota scored a pair of goals on its first two shots of the game, getting tallies from Joel Eriksson Ek and Tyson Jost for a 2-0 lead just 97 seconds into the contest.
On Eriksson Ek's goal, the puck traveled the entire length of the ice in just a couple of seconds, as veteran defenseman Alex Goligoski held the puck behind his own net for a good 10 seconds as the "GREEF" line shuffled through the neutral zone on a controlled breakout.
Goligoski held it so long, the home-standing crowd began to boo lustily, but as it turned out, maybe they should have hoped he held onto it a bit longer, as Goose took a stride to his left and whipped a puck to Jordan Greenway at center ice. The Big Rig one-touched a pass to Eriksson Ek, who skated full boar into the offensive zone -- splitting the defense in the process -- and beating Vitek Vanecek through the five hole for a quick lead at the 36-second mark of the game.
"We had a little bit of a different setup going today with the controlled breakout. Typically, it's hard to beat a team when they're set up and we're set up and everything's controlled," Greenway said. "So today to have Ekker beat a guy like that up the ice and me find a way to touch it to him, it was good. It was definitely rewarding and a good start to the game."
Good might be underselling it.
"We thought Greeny did a great job of not only obviously the end result of chipping the puck to Ek but he kind of lost himself a little bit and moved and a lot of times you just stand. So, doesn't work out a lot but when it does, it looks nice," said Wild coach Dean Evason. "We talked before the game they hadn't played for a while and we had the same type of situation when Vancouver came to us and we had some days off and they rolled in from a game and you just slide right into the next game.
"We definitely had our legs and they didn't early. Obviously getting up right away was a key."
On the very next shift, Ryan Hartman spearheaded a 2-on-1 rush up the ice, rifling a shot just high and wide of the net.

In the midst of another line change moments later, it was Tyson Jost leading a 2-on-1 rush of his own and the former Fighting Hawk didn't miss, firing under the glove of Vanecek for his first in a Wild sweater at 1:37.
Per NHL Stats, the 97 seconds between goals to start a game represented the second-fastest pair in Wild history, trailing Kyle Brodziak's and Andrew Brunette's goals separated by just 61 seconds on Feb. 3, 2011.
Minnesota, which would carry that two-goal lead into the first intermission, now has 79 goals in the first period this season, its most in the opening period of any season in franchise history ... with 14 games remaining to build on it.
"We knew that we were gonna have to come out and not let them get into it, I guess, kinda, just go right at them," Greenway said. "I don't know if we really planned to come out and score off of a controlled breakout, but we knew we wanted to come out, get the momentum early, and obviously a goal like that's huge."
2. Good GREEF
Eriksson Ek's goal moments into the contest was his 20th of the season, making him the fifth Wild player to reach the 20-goal plateau this season.
It also established a new career high in the category after he broke out and tallied 19 goals in 56 games last season, but the Wild's two-way dynamo was far from done on the night.
Heck, his whole line was just getting started.

Late in the second period with the Wild still clinging to its two-goal advantage, Eriksson Ek jarred a puck loose from Vanecek, kicked it to himself, then slid it underneath the Caps goalie and just over the goal line for his 21st of the campaign.
The goal was yet another vintage example of the GREEF line causing grief for an opponent, as Eriksson Ek, Greenway and Marcus Foligno forechecked the heck out of Washington on the shift, applying pressure and forcing Vanecek to work extra hard for a freeze to earn a faceoff.
Fortunately for the Wild, it didn't relent and forced Vanecek into an error it was able to capitalize on.

Greenway and Foligno each -- appropriately -- earned assists on the goal, which pushed the Minnesota to three goals through 40 minutes.
"They sit back sometimes and we don't like to sit back. I think our line plays its best when we forecheck, try to push up the play and play with the puck," Eriksson Ek said. "Of course it's good when we can help the team and score some goals and go from there."
And yet they still weren't done.

It took 30 seconds of third-period action for them to find the scoresheet again, as Foligno whistled one by Vanecek for his 20th goal, on assists from Greenway and Eriksson Ek.
With Foligno at 20, Minnesota became just the third team in the NHL -- joining Florida and St. Louis -- to have six 20-goal scorers.
"It's nice to get rewarded like that this season. It's something that's contributed to our success as a team," Foligno said. "You get a lot of guys that are above that 20-goal mark and you usually have a great regular season as a team. I think my 20 goals have come from my linemates and everyone. It's a team effort there. Definitely some backdoor tap-ins this year.
"It's great to have that and that's what we need going forward. We're a team that has four lines that can roll and everyone can play offensive and defensive. It's been nice to have Greener and Ekker do such a tremendous job and have the chemistry I do with those guys."

It's unlikely the Wild gets to seven, as Matt Boldy, who missed his second consecutive game with an upper-body injury, has 12 goals. Freddy Gaudreau has 10. It would take a pretty ridiculous heater for one of those two to reach 20 goals.
Both Eriksson Ek and Greenway tallied three-point games and all three players on that line were a plus-3. It was as dominant a 60-minute effort by a single line that you'll ever see.
"It makes us more dangerous. We know we have players; Kirill, Zuccy, Kevin, who are really offensively gifted players," Eriksson Ek said. "But for us to have more players come up and score some goals and make some plays, it's important and it makes the whole team harder to defend for sure."
3. Greed is good
When one gazed at the Wild's schedule just 48 hours ago, and saw two of the top teams in the Eastern Conference on the horizon in back-to-back fashion, then a pair of Central Division rivals on the back end of this four-game roadie, a .500 record and four out of eight points looked pretty damn good.
With the trip half over, the Wild is already at four points. It's point streak is up to 10 games, the second time this season it has had a double-digit point streak.
Why not get greedy, right?
"Yeah, it's huge. Obviously, it's a pretty close race in our division. It was important for us to come out and start strong on the road. And I think this is a great momentum for us going into these two games," Greenway said. "Not that these two weren't as big, but obviously, against a division rivalry like that, it's huge. We know what we're up against, how much these games mean for us, and we got to be ready for them."
With St. Louis and Nashville representing the two teams closest to the Wild in the Central Division standings, as well as the final two opponents on this road trip, Minnesota pulled even -- if only for one night -- in the games played column. All three teams have played 68 games this season, and the Wild now stands five clear of the third-place Blues and nine up on the fourth-place Predators.
A regulation victory at Bridgestone Arena on Tuesday night, where Minnesota heads next, would go a heck of a long way towards the Wild securing one of the top three spots in the Central.
A win in St. Louis on Friday would really help nail down home ice in the First Round.
"We'll get ready for the next one. We've liked how we've played. There's a lot of things we can reinforce," Evason said. "But we've got obviously a great team coming up. We'll work on that first."
First things first, however. Job one is done as Minnesota has, at the very least, earned itself a .500 road trip. Now it'll aim for a winning one, a task that begins Tuesday night in the Music City.
"I think Nashville is going to be a great team and something that we're a little bit of a different hockey team since the last time we played them," Foligno said. "I think we're all excited about Tuesday's game. We're not looking ahead further to St. Louis. We want to go into Nashville and do what we've done the past two nights. We want to keep perfecting our game and molding it and making sure it's ready to go for whoever we play in round one."

Loose pucks

• The Wild finished the season 14-0-2 against the Metropolitan Division
• Eriksson Ek's three-point effort was the third of his career and second this season
• Greenway's three-assist night set a new career best for helpers in a game and tied his career high in points
• Hartman's assist on Jost's goal extended his point streak to three games
• Jonas Brodin has assists in consecutive games
• Jost has points in consecutive contests for the first time in a Wild sweater
• Kirill Kaprizov saw his six-game goal streak come to an end
• Cam Talbot finished with 25 saves, improving to 9-0-1 in his past 10 starts
• Vanecek stopped 14 of 18 shots in a losing effort
• Garnet Hathaway tallied the only goal for Washington
• Alex Ovechkin's assist was the 1,499th point of his NHL career

Dan's three stars

1. Joel Eriksson Ek
   2. Jordan Greenway
   3. Marcus Foligno

Highlights

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