Postgame Hat Trick: Penguins 6, Wild 3

Wild.com's Dan Myers gives three takeaways from the Wild's 6-3 loss against the Pittsburgh Penguins at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh on Thursday night:

1. It was 80s night at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, as the Wild and Penguins combined for a 1980s-era nine goals in the game.
Pittsburgh scored two goals in the first period, two more in the second and two more in the third, as the Wild lost to the Penguins for the first time in four meetings.
"It was obvious that we didn't bring out work boots," said Wild coach Bruce Boudreau. "I was hoping to get out of the period 1-nothing, but I was happy to get out 2-nothing, quite frankly. But it didn't really manifest into anything because they made it four, then six."
The Pens led 6-0 at one point in the third period before the Wild got goals from Eric Staal, Mikael Granlund and Jonas Brodin 3:02 apart midway through the final period, making things interesting for a bit.

Unfortunately for the Wild, it couldn't claw any closer.

"They also threw it in cruise control," said Wild forward Zach Parise. "What was the message? Play. Play hockey. Play the way we're capable of playing."

The usual suspects were at it for the Penguins on Thursday, with Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel leading the offensive charge for the Penguins. Crosby and Kessel each had three assists while Malkin scored two goals and had an assist.
Carl Hagelin and Dominik Simon each had two-point nights, with Simon scoring twice and Hegelin mixing in one goal and one assist.
Each of Malkin's goals deflected off the skate of Wild defenseman Ryan Suter, eluding goaltender Devan Dubnyk in the first period and Alex Stalock in the third.
Dubnyk was lifted midway through the game after giving up four goals. It was an unfortunate turn of events for Dubnyk, who has been fantastic of late, as there was little he could do about any of the goals.
In its final game before the All-Star break, the Wild saw its six-game point streak snapped as well as its three-game winning streak against the Penguins.

"I'm saying, 'you gotta have some pride in this game.' No matter what, it's the same thing I said in between periods, we may not win the game, but you gotta get back to the way you're supposed to play," Boudreau said of his message during a timeout following Pittsburgh's sixth goal. "They were having odd-man rushes of 4-on-2, 3-on-2 almost every shift. When you get into those bad habits, it's really difficult to get out of them, and we haven't had those habits in a while. But I said, 'just play with pride, it's 6-nothing now, but lets start just doing things right.' It might work out that it makes it better for the next game."
2. About 12 hours before heading to Tampa for the All-Star Game, Staal ended goaltender Casey DeSmith's shutout bid.
After having a goal overturned in the second period for goaltender interference, the Wild was in danger of being blanked by the Penguins for the first time in franchise history.
But midway through the final period, Staal collected a rogue bounce in the slot, turned and snapped a shot over DeSmith's glove.

The goal was Staal's 20th of the season, the 11th time in his illustrious career he has reached the 20-goal plateau. It also gave him sole possession of the team lead after Jason Zucker tied him with 19 last time out against Ottawa.
"The game was over already. It was 6-0. We wanted to show something, obviously," Staal said. "But we needed one more to make it 6-4 and then pull the goalie. It was too big a hill."
3. The Penguins gave Matt Cullen a fantastic welcome back to the Steel City.

During the first television timeout, a tribute video began on the overhead scoreboard, and almost instantly, fans inside the arena stood and began to cheer. The video lasted more than a minute, with the volume level inside PPG Paints Arena seemingly increasing with each passing moment.
Tweet from @penguins: Thanks for everything, Dad. We wouldn't be where we are without you. pic.twitter.com/tGWPmFdo3f
Cullen only played in 154 regular season games over two seasons with Pittsburgh, but
talked this morning
about how attached to the city and its fans he and his family became.

Rather quickly, it became apparent that sentiment was a two-way street. Cullen helped the Pens to back-to-back Stanley Cup championships, forever rooting him in Penguins lore.

If it was indeed Cullen's final trip to Pittsburgh, it certainly was a memorable one for No. 7.

Loose pucks

• Crosby's first assist of the game gave him 1,080 points, moving him past Jaromir Jagr into sole possession of second place on the Pens' all-time list.
• Staal also finished with an assist for a two-point game.
• Marcus Foligno had two assists for the eighth time in his NHL career.
• Jason Zucker extended his point streak to six games with an assist, tying his season high point streak for the third time. He has four goals and two assists during his current streak.
• Granlund's goal was his seventh power-play marker of the season, which leads the team.
• DeSmith made 23 saves in the win.
• Dubnyk stopped 17 shots. Stalock made 16 saves on 18 shots.
• Attendance: 18,453

He said it

"When you start to turn pucks over and everybody's discombobulated, it starts to feel hectic for everybody, from the front to the back. The reason we're a great hockey team when we are is play everybody together and we're a unit. When that starts to get twisted up, it feels out of control for everybody, and that's when things start to open up." -- Wild goaltender Devan Dubnyk

Dan's three stars

* Sidney Crosby
\\ Evgeni Malkin
\\* Dominik Simon