Postgame Hat Trick: Wild 5, Islanders 3

Wild.com's Dan Myers gives three takeaways from the Wild's 5-3 win against the New York Islanders at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York on Monday afternoon:

1. Minnesota got another balanced effort offensively, getting goals from three different lines in the victory.
First, it was Joel Eriksson Ek snapping a 50-game goal drought in the first period to give the Wild an early lead.

Then, after the Islanders rallied to take a 2-1 lead, Minnesota rattled off three straight goals in the span of 4:12 of the second period.
Matt Cullen tied the game after collecting a pretty headman pass by defenseman Ryan Suter, capping a breakaway chance with a top-shelf beauty for his sixth goal.

A little over two minutes later, it was Jason Zucker one-timing a feed from Suter, giving the Wild the lead back. It was Zucker's 24th goal of the season and Suter's second helper of the day.

Less than two minutes after that, Tyler Ennis beat Jaroslav Halak five-hole after a nice setup by Cullen.

2. It was a tale of two periods for the Wild in the second.
The first half of the frame, Minnesota struggled to get much of anything going. The Wild had just one shot on goal for the first eight minutes, but a bad line change by the Islanders and Suter's headman pass to Cullen changed everything.
The Wild had 11 shots over the back end of the period, and after trailing by one following Anders Lee's 30th goal 1:57 into the frame, led by two after Ennis' tally at 14:06.
Tanner Fritz scored his first NHL goal to get New York back within one goal at 16:31, but all in all, it was a pretty good 20 minutes of hockey for the visitors.
3. Minnesota started its three-game trip to New York in style.
Long Island -- whether at Nassau Coliseum or Barclays Center -- hasn't been kind to the Wild in the past, as the win evened Minnesota's record here to 6-6 all time.
Now the team has a couple of off days before finishing its East Coast swing with back-to-back games against other area teams -- the Devils on Thursday and the Rangers on Friday -- before returning home for two games against Western Conference foes San Jose and St. Louis to close out the month of February.
While the Wild has struggled on the road for a bulk of the season, it's won three of four away from Xcel Energy Center since the All-Star break. Something to keep an eye on as the week continues.
Related:
- New York road trip provides opportunity for Wild to 'win the week' - Watch: Zucker mic'd up