"I think you can really tell they enjoy playing with each other. It's so much like Zuccy and Kirill how they can find each other without even looking, just playing the puck into areas and the next guy is there, it's fun to see and it helps our team to get that scoring, it's great for us," Eriksson Ek said. "And we're just trying to keep that going and keep getting better every day and getting that trust with each other is really important when we go into the second half now."
The Wild has weathered the storm without Marcus Foligno, who missed his second of a two-game suspension on Monday night. He'll return Wednesday night in Winnipeg.
A big reason why Minnesota has been able to overcome that large hole in the lineup has been the outstanding play of the Boldy, Fiala and Gaudreau connection, which has also been a big reason why the Wild has lost just once in regulation since New Year's Day.
Boldy was recalled from Iowa a couple of days later, was installed as the wing opposite Fiala and Gaudreau, and all three have been flaming hot ever since.
The Wild's record during that stretch is now 11-1-1.
"I mean, it's scary. It's scary the depth that I think that we have," Greenway said. "We can rely on everyone for different things, whether it's getting on the scoresheet or locking down another line, whatever the case is. We can rely on pretty much everyone, so that's definitely a good feeling and it's gonna be good for us going down the stretch for sure."
3. Gimme five
It's hard to believe, because it's hard to remember, but the Wild actually found itself in a very early two-goal hole against the Red Wings.
Dylan Larkin got things going just 87 seconds into the contest, taking advantage of a blown tire by Jordie Benn and beating Kaapo Kahkonen on a breakaway.
A penalty a few seconds later put the Wings on a power play, and although they didn't score on it, they captured momentum and would push their lead to two at the 4:01 mark.
Evason showed confidence in his team however, keeping his timeout in his pocket for the time being.
"Coaches can get in the way sometimes, right? They've got to figure it out, too. We will make some adjustments between periods and what have you, but there's to be made [then]," Evason said. "What are you going to do, yell at them, tell them to settle down? Our group wasn't overly excited, they weren't down. We had a lot of real good play everywhere. We trusted them to figure it out."
The sellout Xcel Energy Center crowd was stunned, but knew better than to count out the home squad. Minnesota had a pair of breakaways and a 2-on-1 rush on the penalty kill alone, so you had the feeling scoring chances would be plentiful.
Sure enough, Boldy scored his first of the night less than 90 seconds later and the game was knotted at 2-2 by the 8:04 mark.
Kaprizov and Boldy pushed the Wild lead to 4-2 with second-period markers, before Boldy fed Eriksson Ek for a redirection in front and a 5-2 lead eight minutes into the third.
The Wild power play scored three times on the night, with two of Boldy's goals and Eriksson Ek's coming with the extra attacker.
