Postgame Hat Trick: Wild 3, Golden Knights 2

Wild.com's Dan Myers gives three takeaways from the Wild's 3-2 win against the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Friday night:

1. Minnesota continued its torrid run against the NHL's best teams away from home.
It's almost like a broken record. In the past month, the Wild has won in Winnipeg, in Calgary, in Tampa, in Washington and now in Las Vegas -- five of the very best teams in the NHL.
In winning on Friday, the Wild ran its record to 5-0-1 versus Vegas. Along with St. Louis, Minnesota is the only team the Golden Knights have been unable to defeat in regulation in its two outstanding seasons its been in the League.

Credit the power play on Friday, which got goals from Eric Staal and Kevin Fiala to help build a 3-0 lead. The Wild salted it away from there.

Unfortunately for Minnesota, it got zero help from its next opponent, the Arizona Coyotes, who not only nabbed a point in Colorado on Friday, but then lost in a shootout.
The Wild began the night four points back of the Avalanche for the second wild card spot in the Western Conference, and it will go to sleep in Glendale still four points back despite another rock solid road win.
The only sliver of good news is that Colorado won in a shootout. Minnesota now has one more win in regulation or overtime that the Avs, which is the first tiebreaker for the postseason.
Now the Wild just needs to close the four-point gap, which will likely take a win in each of its final four games. Minnesota will also need some help.
Up next for the Wild is a date with the Coyotes in Glendale, a game that would all but eliminate the loser from postseason contention.
2. Greg Pateryn scored his first goal in a Wild uniform.
It took the defensive-minded defenseman 75 games and a little more than two minutes to find the goal column. And while it wasn't a highlight-reel tally, it did get the Wild off and running in a well-played first period.
Pateryn gained control of the puck in the defensive zone and cruised through the neutral zone, shifting to the right-wing wall and around a defenseman before turning to the net at the goal line.
There's no such thing as a bad shot right?

Well, Pateryn fired at Golden Knights goaltender Malcolm Subban and banked his shot in the net.
The tally was Pateryn's first since Dec. 3, 2017 when he was a member of the Dallas Stars, and snapped a 130-game goal drought, which had been the longest such drought in the NHL.
3. Devan Dubnyk was outstanding and had one of his best saves of the season in the second period.
With the Wild clinging to a 2-0 lead, Mark Stone had the puck behind the Minnesota goal and its goaltender down and, what looked like anyway, out.
Stone wrapped around the goal and had a whole bunch of net to shoot at ... but out of nowhere, Dubnyk got in the way and gloved down Stone's attempt on the goal line.

A few minutes later, Minnesota got its third power play and Kevin Fiala deposited a rebound into the goal for a three-goal lead.
Dubnyk finished with 35 saves on the night and has now allowed two goals or fewer in five of his past six starts.