Postgame Hat Trick: Wild 4, Oilers 1

Wild.com's Dan Myers gives three takeaways from the Wild's 4-1 win against the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place in Edmonton on Tuesday night:

1. Off and running

Following a perfect five-game homestand, it didn't take the Wild to get going on its four-game road trip ... About 71 seconds to be exact.
It was an eventful first few moments, after Edmonton's Evan Bouchard was called for tripping just 33 seconds into the game. With its power play on the ice, Joel Eriksson Ek gathered in a bounce off the end wall and attempted to jam the puck between goaltender Mikko Koskinen's left pad and the post.
He succeeded, but only partially. The puck laid prone in the blue paint, and before Koskinen could angle his glove behind him to cover it, Eriksson Ek jammed it into the cage for his 10th goal of the campaign.

"Of course, it gives you a little bit of momentum to play with the lead," Eriksson Ek said. "I think to get that goal was good for our confidence to start that way, take a lead early and build on it."
The Wild has now won seven consecutive games overall and has scored first in six of those seven. It is 12-1-0 when it tallies the opening goal of the game this season.
"I think that power-play goal really helped us mentally," said Wild coach Dean Evason. "We've had some good looks ... but to get rewarded gives the guys a jump.
"But to get up on a team like this is obviously crucial and it set us up tonight to finish the game properly."

Eriksson Ek has picked up this season where he left off in the goal-scoring department, reaching double digits in that category for a second straight season. He scored a career high 19 goals last season and is well on his way to surpassing 20 or more for the first time in 2021-22.
What may help him get there? Increased time on the power play. Eriksson Ek has rarely gotten much time on the man advantage in past years, but with his long-term future secured and bolstered in Minnesota, the expectation was that he'd see chances on the power play this season.
"It's fun," Eriksson Ek said. "We have great players on it, I'm just trying to be around the net and get those rebounds and second chances."
The goal Tuesday was already his fifth power-play marker of the campaign, a total which is top-5 in the entire NHL.
2. Tip of the cap to Cam
Cameron Thomas Talbot made his 352nd NHL start on Tuesday night, with a large portion of them coming right here in Edmonton, where he spent 3 1/2 years as a member of the organization.
It's a place near and dear to Talbot's heart. After breaking in with the New York Rangers in 2013, Edmonton was the place where Talbot got his first opportunity as a full-time starter. Heck, in his second season with the Oilers, Talbot started 73 games. They only play 82 during the regular season. He started 67 games the following year too, a trend you rarely see now-a-days.
Talbot was traded from Edmonton to Philadelphia midseason in 2019, then spent a year with rival Calgary before signing in Minnesota, and is now in his second season with the Wild. But because of his role as the Flames' backup and the pandemic, the start was only his second versus the Oil since leaving town, and his first at Rogers Place.
How did Talbot thank his former team on Tuesday night? By continuing his outstanding play in making 38 saves to backstop the Wild to a victory.

"I've been back in this building a couple times but never got to start," Talbot said. "It's nice. This place will always have a place in our heart, we started our family here and it was a great building to play in. Still have a lot of friends here so it's one of those things that you look forward to coming back every time. Obviously it's more fun when you get a big win."
The secret sauce for Talbot on Tuesday was his rebound control.
Virtually every one of the 39 shots he saw was a one-and-done opportunity for the Oilers, with few, if any, Grade-A chances coming on second or third-chance tries.
Talbot was especially large in the second period, a frame played largely in the zone right in front of him. The Oilers scored their lone goal in the second, but Talbot stopped 19 of 20 shots in the middle period, a number of them gigantic.
"They're going to get shots, right? And to not give up that second and third gritty [shots] to them ... they're going to get their skilled shots," Evason said. "They're going to get opportunities to shoot pucks, but it's that second, third one [that hurt]. Not only did Cam do a good job of smothering, but our D and the low forward, we got pucks the heck out of that area so they didn't have more opportunities like that."
Talbot's 14 wins are tied with Toronto's Jack Campbell for most in the NHL, the same Campbell that Talbot outdueled in St. Paul on Sunday.
3. Offense from defense
Wild captain Jared Spurgeon missed his eighth consecutive game in his hometown on Tuesday night, but the club's blueliners continued their superb play during that stretch.
Not only have they been more than solid in his absence, but they've continued to flourish offensively.
Jonas Brodin earned an assist on Eriksson Ek's goal early, then added an absolutely gorgeous first assist on Victor Rask's humongous third-period marker that doubled Minnesota's lead and made it a 3-1 game with 14:27 to play in regulation.

Matt Dumba worked a pretty give-and-go with Marcus Foligno at 7:14 of the first period, with Foligno potting his 11th goal of the season after a nifty little pass from Dumba to set it up.

Dmitry Kulikov put the cherry on top with a breakaway goal (yes, a breakaway goal) with just over five minutes left in the contest. Kirill Kaprizov's first assist was a beautiful touch pass that managed to suck in both defenders, leaving Kulikov all alone with the netminder, but it was Jordie Benn's strong outlet feed that got the whole thing started.
"We praise our depth and I think a lot of times, people think our depth is our four lines," Evason said. "It's not, our depth is our seven D who are here."

Evason praised Benn, saying it was perhaps his best game yet, which could make any decision regarding Spurgeon's impending return - perhaps as soon as Thursday in San Jose - a difficult one.
"We're going to have some tough decisions to make," Evason said.

Between Benn's head-man feed and Kulkov's breakaway, the puck traveled 185 feet in about three seconds, finishing in the back of the Oilers cage and all-but finishing Edmonton's hopes of for some late-game heroics.
Even better, Kulikov scored the goal with Rask's stick, a twig he said he's used now the past three games.
Two of his three goals this season have been scored during that stretch.

"I took it a few practices ago," Kulikov said with a grin. "I liked it, so I've been using his stick the last three games. I'm just using his old sticks, I'm not asking for a new one."
Can't change it up now, right?
"I don't know, we'll see," Kulikov said. "I just go with a feeling."

Loose pucks

• Minnesota's win combined with Calgary's loss in San Jose put the Wild solo atop the Western Conference standings with 37 points
• The Wild's 18-6-1 start to the season gives it the most points its had through 25 games in team history (2013-14, 34 points)
• Dumba's assist was his second in as many games
• Eriksson Ek's multi-point game was his fourth of the season and 14th of his NHL career
• Foligno has four goals in his past five games and now has 11 on the year, tying his total from each of the past two seasons in just 25 games
• Kaprizov's assist extended his point streak to six games, the longest of his career. He has 12 points during the streak and his 19 points since Nov. 18 are most in the NHL
• Zuccarello's assist on Rask's goal was his second of the night at 300th of his NHL career
• Jesse Puljujarvi scored the lone goal for Edmonton on an assist by Connor McDavid
• Leon Draisaitl, the NHL's leading scorer coming into the game, was held off the scoresheet entirely for just the sixth time in 24 games this season
• Koskinen finished with 22 saves on 26 shots

Dan's three stars

1. Cam Talbot
   2. Jonas Brodin
   3. Dmitry Kulikov

Highlights