Postgame Hat Trick: Wild 4, Senators 3

Wild.com's Dan Myers gives three takeaways from the Wild's 4-3 win against the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre in Kanata, Ontario on Saturday afternoon:

1. Zach Parise's three-point game helped the Wild overcome a slow start.
Puck drop in Kanata was shortly after 1 p.m., and Minnesota was a little late to the party. Ottawa outshot the Wild 15-8 in the first period and scored the only goal of the period on a tally by Matt Duchene in the final minute of the frame.
Thanks in large part to goaltender Devan Dubnyk, that's all Ottawa would get in the first.
Parise helped get the offense going in the second, assisting on two goals then scored what ended up being the game-winning goal 6:07 into the third period.

For Parise, the goal was his team-leading 19th of the season, and the three-point game was the 40th of his NHL career (second this season).
Parise is the Wild's "Last Man In" representative for the All-Star Game later this month. You can vote to send him to San Jose by visiting
NHL.com/vote
.
2. Spurgeon stayed hot with two goals.
The Wild has played two games on this trip and the diminutive defenseman has tallied multi-point games in each one of them. He now has seven goals on the season (40 games), two fewer than the nine he had in 61 games last season and four off his career high of 11 scored in 77 games in 2015-16.

Perhaps more importantly, Spurgeon is helping to fill the offensive void from the blueline left behind when Matt Dumba exited the lineup last month.

If Spurgeon remains healthy, he certainly seems primed to break the 40-point barrier for the first time in his career. He's currently on pace to do just that.
3. With Team USA vying for a gold medal at the World Junior Championships, its two most recent American entrants played big roles in the Wild's win on Saturday.
Both Luke Kunin and Jordan Greenway won gold with the U.S. in 2017, and each found the scoresheet against the Senators.
Kunin, who captained the Americans in 2017, tallied the primary assist on Spurgeon's first goal, then did some of the dirty work near the blue paint on his second goal, a slapper from a bad angle that leaked through Nilsson with Kunin scratching for position in front.
Greenway scored the Wild's second goal of the game, sticking with a loose puck after being denied in front before poking a loose puck through Nilsson for his seventh of the season.

Along with Charlie Coyle, who extended his own point streak to four games, Kunin and Greenway have been three of the Wild's most consistently good forwards for a couple of weeks now.