Postgame Hat Trick: Wild 3, Ducks 1

Wild.com's Dan Myers gives three takeaways from the Wild's 3-1 win against the Anaheim Ducks at Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif. on Thursday night:

1. Just 48 hours after being blanked in Los Angeles, the Wild wasted little time getting on the board against the Ducks.
Playing its first game in two weeks on Tuesday down the road at Staples Center, the Wild was unable to solve Jonathan Quick in 60 minutes of action. And things weren't looking much better with John Gibson staring them in the face on Thursday, the same Gibson who posted a 34-save shutout against Minnesota last month, and the same Gibson who entered the night with a 7-3-1 record with a 1.75 goals-against average and .946 save percentage and three shutouts in 12 career starts versus the Wild.

None of that mattered on Thursday.
Ryan Hartman got Minnesota on the board 7:27 into the contest, picking the pocket of an Anaheim defender, then rifling a shot over Gibson's glove for an early 1-0 lead.
Only 38 seconds later, it was 2-0 when Kevin Fiala cleaned up a loose puck laying in the Ducks crease.
Anaheim trailed by a pair of goals before it was even able to muster its first shot on goal, as Minnesota brought a multi-goal lead into intermission following, arguably, its best period of the season so far.
2. Think the Wild missed its captain?
Making his return to the lineup on Thursday was defenseman Jared Spurgeon, who sustained an upper-body injury in the Wild's final game in Denver before the COVID-19 shutdown. Spurgeon was then added to the COVID-19 protocol list and wasn't removed in time to play Tuesday in L.A.
Well, he made his mark early, as the Wild took consecutive penalties just past the midway point in the first period, giving the Ducks 65 seconds of 5-on-3 power play time.
It was an opportunity for the Ducks to really turn the tide of the hockey game.
Instead, it was Spurgeon, who made not one, not two, but three outstanding defensive plays on the two-man disadvantage to help kill the chance and maintain the two-goal lead into the first intermission.
It was a tough start to the season for Spurgeon, who had just two assists in the first 11 games before the shutdown, but those plays were the kinds of heady defensive plays that won't show up in a boxscore but end up being big-time plays in the overall effort.
3. Hartman was outstanding.
Yeah, he scored the first goal, which came after he forced a turnover in the offensive zone.

But beyond that, Hartman was tenacious on the forecheck and was a pest all night long, forcing Anaheim defenders to make difficult and quick decisions.
In the third period, his hustle erased an icing on the Wild, resulted in a grade-A scoring chance and then forced an icing on the Ducks.
Nico Sturm did not find the scoresheet in the game, but played a very similar style that created problems all night as well.