Postgame Hat Trick: Wild 4, Predators 2

Wild.com's Dan Myers gives three takeaways from the Wild's 4-2 win against the Nashville Predators at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul on Friday night:

1. Mikael Granlund scored a pair of goals early, then finished off the hat trick with an empty-netter in the final minute.
Granlund scored twice in the game's first 11:09, then was on the prowl for his second career hat trick over the remaining 48-plus minutes of play.
All three goals were biggies.
With the Wild protecting a 3-2 lead, Granlund's hatty came after Eric Staal flipped a puck from the neutral zone over the heads of both Predators defensemen, where Granlund chased it down.

Minnesota owned the first several minutes, as Granlund's attempt that beat Predators goaltender Pekka Rinne through the five hole was the Wild's 11th shot just 7:34 into the game. It also gave Minnesota an 11-0 edge on the shot chart.

"I think it was the best start of the year for us," Granlund said. "It makes it easier the whole game when you have a start like that and put the pressure on early."
P.K. Subban knotted things up less than three minutes later, blowing a shot through Devan Dubnyk's right pad that trickled over the goal line at 10:16. But the tie was only temporary, as Granlund scored again 53 seconds later, this time on the power play.
Moments after Nashville's Nick Bonino high-sticked Jared Spurgeon, putting the Wild on its second man advantage, it was Spurgeon who worked a nifty give-and-go with Granlund, first accepting a drop pass near the blue line, then feathering one back to the Finnish wing, who roofed a quick shot over Rinne from in tight.

"I thought if we play that hard going into the second period with a 1-1 tie, I thought that was advantage them," said Wild coach Bruce Boudreau. "So to get the second one -- we had chances for more, we had a couple posts and had one disallowed."
"It's big. I think we were pretty good defending. When we're leading, it makes the other team chase us and that's an easier way to play," Granlund said. "Getting a lead, it's big. We held on to that, so big two points."
The goal was Granlund's 10th, as he joined Nino Niederreiter, Eric Staal and Jason Zucker as Wild players who have reached double digits in the goals category this season.
It was also Granlund's second consecutive multi-point effort after he tallied one goal and one assist in Wednesday's wi
n against the Dallas Stars
.
"He was making plays. It was like a yo-yo on his stick tonight," Boudreau said. "When he gets like that, he's as good as there is. I hope he can continue it now."
2. Playing for the first time in more than two weeks, Dubnyk looked sharp in his return.
After sustaining a lower-body injury 17 days ago against the Calgary Flames, Dubnyk waited nearly eight minutes into Friday's game before seeing his first shot on goal. The initial try was a grade-A chance from former Wisconsin Badger Craig Smith cruising down the slot, one that he stabbed with the left pad.
Save for the goal by Subban, which Dubnyk thought he had trapped in his pads, the 31-year-old netminder was fantastic. He finished with 41 saves, including 18 in the second period alone, as Minnesota built a two-goal lead heading into to the third.

"The guys got me one right back," Dubnyk said. "It's nice to get some looks. You knew [the Predators] were going to come; that's a good team and we did a good job defending and working hard in front of the net when there were pucks laying around. That gives me an opportunity to make that many saves."
Dubnyk got the best of several quality chances by Smith, who finished the game with 11(!) shots on goal. Viktor Arvidsson and Kevin Fiala also hounded pucks and made life difficult at times. Kyle Turris scored Nashville's second goal, a power-play tally early in the third period which came after a Dubnyk slashing penalty.
But as the game went on, Dubnyk seemed more comfortable and settled into a nice rhythm.
"After the first goal, you could have thought, 'First game back ... how rusty is he?' But he made some really good saves," Boudreau said. "It was really good that they had a lot of long shots so he could get the feel of it back again. That was great. But he stood tall. He did a great job."
3. Minnesota heads to Nashville with a chance to finish a potentially transcendent week.
Mired in the middle of a clump of teams inside the Central Division and Western Conference, the Wild has managed to take four of four points against two teams in front of it. Having won the front half of back-to-back games against the Predators, the pressure shifts to the home team on Saturday.

"I think individually we realize how big this weekend is and it's really going to count if we follow it up tomorrow," Staal said. "We were ready to play today. We were hungry for the win, and the biggest key now is to go in their building and do the same thing. It's going to be a tough test, it's a tough building to play in, but we should be up for it.
If Minnesota can go into Bridgestone Arena -- a place it has won six times in its past nine trips -- and get a win in regulation, it could move to within just four points of first place in the Central Division.
"Right now, the Western Conference is so tight, there's no games that you can take off," Dubnyk said. "Nashville is a very tough building to play in, too, so I think we just need to take whatever preparation we had for this game and look at what was working for us and come out with the same game plan tomorrow. It's about how we play; it's not about how they play, so it's important to come back with that."
Inconsistency was one of the Wild's bugaboos early in the campaign, but the club has managed to string together three consecutive quality games, a stretch that began before the Christmas break in Tampa.
Minnesota didn't win that game, but has followed up with two good outings out of the break.
Boudreau likened it to a stretch the Wild had earlier this season, when it played well in a loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Nov. 8, but followed by winning its next four games.

"We lost that game in Toronto, but we played the right way for the most part. We continued after that for a short period of time playing pretty good and we won games," Boudreau said. "The Tampa game was something the same way. I know Nashville got 40-some shots on goal, but I mean, they shoot from everywhere. They got to the net really well. That's their identity. We expect that. But I thought we played a pretty solid game tonight."

Loose pucks

• Matt Dumba scored one goal and added an assist.
• Granlund had a team-high seven shots on goal.
• The Wild is now 9-1-1 in its past 11 games at Xcel Energy Center.
• Matt Cullen tallied one assist and now has 697 points in his NHL career.
• Rinne finished with 34 saves on 37 shots.
• Subban had a goal and an assist for Nashville.
• Boudreau was hit in the head with a puck with just under six minutes left in regulation and left the bench for stitches. The coach returned before the game's end and said afterward he's "fine."

• Attendance: 19,147

He said it

"When he's got that Granny vision going, he's hard to stop. He's awesome to watch. This is the Granny we've all come to know, and him being one of my good friends, I expect that from him." -- Wild defenseman Matt Dumba

They said it

"They were first everywhere. There's no excuse, it's got to be better. We're not going to win games by giving away first periods." -- Predators coach Peter Laviolette

Three stars

* Mikael Granlund
\\ Jared Spurgeon
\\* Matt Dumba