Postgame Hat Trick: Maple Leafs 3, Wild 1

Wild.com's Dan Myers gives three takeaways from the Wild's 3-1 loss against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto on Thursday night:

1. Nip and tuck
Believe it or not, the game in Toronto Thursday featured the NHL's third and fourth highest-scoring clubs.
Still, at the end of two periods, the game was tied 1-1 and the Wild and Maple Leafs were engaged in a defensive slugfest.
Perhaps it shouldn't be surprising.
Both clubs entered the contest looking to tighten up defensively, having entered allowing more scoring chances -- and goals -- to opponents in recent games.
Both clubs accomplished that goal, but especially the Wild, which held Toronto off the shot chart entirely for the first 10-plus minutes of the game.
"I think our start was better today than it was in Ottawa. It was a tight game, back and forth, chances both ways. And I thought we could have won that game," said Wild defenseman Jonas Brodin. "I think they took advantage of their chances a little bit better. It's tough to lose."
After the clubs traded goals 27 seconds apart in the second period, scoring chances again were at a premium in the third, and when they did develop, Wild goaltender Kaapo Kahkonen and Leafs netminder Petr Mrazek got in the way.
The lone exception came 10:22 into the final period when Auston Matthews finished off a 2-on-1 give-and-go with Mitch Marner by redirecting a Marner pass just past an outstretched Kahkonen on a play he had little chance of stopping.

"1-1 after [two periods] any game on the road, I think it's a decent spot to be in," Kahkonen said. "They obviously pushed and they have good players, but I think we had a good effort as well in the end there and just didn't get a bounce."
The Wild made its patented late push with Kahkonen off but was unable to find the equalizer before Alexander Kerfoot buried one into an empty cage to provide the final margin.
"One mistake or one special player. I don't think it was a mistake as opposed to him making a special play," Wild coach Dean Evason said of the play by Matthews to steal the puck away from a Wild player in the neutral zone, which started the odd-man rush on the winning goal. "He's one of the best players in the world for a reason and we felt the same thing.
"We really liked our game. Certainly they didn't have a shot for 10 minutes in the first period. We did a lot of really good things. It was just a matter of that one break somehow."
2. Freddy's on fire
Wild forward Freddy Gaudreau is in the midst of a career season in his first campaign with the Wild, and that trend continued on Thursday night when Gaudreau got Minnesota on the board early in the second period.
While plenty has been made about the exploits of Kevin Fiala and Matt Boldy in recent weeks -- and deservedly so -- Gaudreau is sort of the forgotten man on that line. Wild coach Dean Evason referred to Gaudreau the "security blanket" on that line, and has said in the past that much of what he brings to the rink on a nightly basis doesn't show up in the boxscore.

But Gaudreau has been filling the boxscore of late.
His goal was his sixth of the season in his 43rd game, which is twice as many as his previous career best (three), which occurred in 55 games with Nashville in 2018-19.
Gaudreau has 10 points in his past 11 games overall, and his goal came off a fantastic feed from behind the cage by Boldy, who now has 17 points in 18 career NHL games.

Fiala earned the second assist, extending his point streak to three games, a stretch during which he has three goals and six points. Fiala has 25 points in all over his past 20 games.
"Those chances, such nice plays by my teammates there," Gaudreau said. "Bolds and Kevin, such nice creative plays and it would have been fun to put that one in the end especially."
3. Alberta Clipper
Minnesota will conclude this wonky Canadian road trip by heading back to where it all began a few days ago, Alberta, and a matchup with the province's other club, the Calgary Flames.
The Wild will hope to have similar luck as it did in Edmonton on Sunday, when it secured a 7-3 victory at Rogers Place, but that'll be a lot easier said than done. Perhaps no team in the NHL is as hot -- pardon the pun -- as the Flames, who entered the day riding a 10-game winning streak, one that has rocketed Calgary up the Pacific Division standings.

"If we're not prepared, we're in trouble," Evason said. "They're gritty. There's so many different elements. We'll get pushed into the fight and we like that our guys will enjoy that challenge."
A win on Saturday night would mean a .500 road trip, and when you consider that three of the four opponents on this trip all currently sit inside the playoff line -- and in some cases, well inside that line -- a 2-2 trip would be pretty darn solid.
That's how the Wild is looking at it anyway.

"Yeah, I think if we win this one it's okay trip," Brodin said. "I mean, it's a pretty tough, tough trip if you look at the schedule to go west and east coast, but for sure we got better. We got to play better."
Gaudreau said doing things the right way, and focusing on some of the same elements that made the game Thursday in Toronto so competitive and tight, will be the key once again in Calgary on Saturday night.
"I think our focus is most importantly to do the right thing and focus on playing that honest game that I know we can play and believing that when we do that, most of the time, we come out with the win," Gaudreau said. "I think we just gotta stick to what we know is our identity and I think it's pretty simple, it's just being honest within our game, making sure our mindset is always focusing on doing the right stuff, believing that positive is going to come out of that after."
Loose pucks
- Boldy ranks second in points among rookies since making his NHL debut on Jan. 6 - Kahkonen made 22 saves on 24 shots - The loss dropped Kahkonen to 8-2-1 over his past 11 starts. He's surrendered just three goals in the two regulation defeats - Timothy Liljegren and Travis Dermott also had assists for the Leafs - Mrazek made 29 saves in the winning effort

Dan's three stars

1. Auston Matthews
   2. Petr Mrazek
   3. Kaapo Kahkonen

Highlights