Talbot sharp early, often as Wild rallies behind its goaltender

The Wild extended its winning streak to five games on Wednesday night with a 4-1 victory against the Arizona Coyotes at Gila River Arena.
It was a game that would not have been one - and could not have been won - without a stupendous effort in goal from Cam Talbot, who was the best player on the ice for either team in the first six minutes of regulation.
Without him, it's likely the desperate Coyotes would have built a multi-goal lead early in the game, and human nature being what it is, it sure seems likely Minnesota would have been happy with a split in the desert before turning its focus to a weekend back-to-back in California.

But Talbot would not allow it.
Arizona scored a power-play goal at 7:38 of the first period, a tally that gave the Coyotes the early lead.
At that moment in time, however, Arizona held an 11-1 advantage on the shot chart, and Talbot had already denied Derick Brassard on one grade-A chance, and Phil Kessel on two others, including a wraparound try that Talbot somehow got his right pad on.

"Now we can joke that it could have been 10-nothing in the first if it wasn't for this guy," said Wild forward Marcus Foligno, nodding towards Talbot sitting next to him. "But it's been like that all year. Honestly, just the relief we have, the confidence that we have in Cam and even Kaapo, it's huge for our team. And you can't have success without goaltending. That's going to be huge going into the playoffs and in a playoff push."
And while Foligno was credited with the game-winning goal 4:32 into the third period, teammates were quick to credit Talbot with being the primary reason the Wild won.

Talbot, who improved to 5-1-0 against the Coyotes this season, finished the game with 39 saves on 40 shots.
"The saves, the calmness back there ... we looked like we didn't have our legs," Foligno said. "But when you have a goaltender back there who can do that for you, you see where we can get into games and we can be dangerous in the third period and steal two points."
That's exactly what happened on Wednesday.
Arizona outshot Minnesota 14-9 in the first period, a frame that was salvaged by the Wild in the final two minutes or so before intermission.

That carried over to the second, where Kevin Fiala tied the game on a goal 2:58 into the period, taking a feed from Nico Sturm and finishing off a 2-on-1 rush.
Buoyed by its goaltender and its 50/50 status in the game, Minnesota made a push in the third on Foligno's breakaway goal at 4:32. It remained a one-goal game until late, when Kirill Kaprizov beat four guys on one shift to score a backbreaking goal with two minutes left, giving the Wild a multi-goal lead.

Sturm added an empty-net goal with 12 seconds remaining to finish off the final margin.
Talbot stopped 17 shots in the second period and nine more in the third to make sure the Wild's lead would stand.
"We know that they were a desperate team and they were going to come with a push," Talbot said. "They did just that from the drop of the puck. We weathered the storm, and give our guys lots of credit, we bent tonight, but we didn't break."
Arizona's desperation stems from its place in the standings.
A week ago in St. Paul, the Coyotes sat on the precipice of their most important week of the season, trailing the Wild by 10 points in the standings with three games upcoming.

Had the Coyotes won all three of those games, they would have put themselves right back in the race for third place in the West Division standings.
Instead, the Wild won 5-2 in St. Paul, then followed with the same 5-2 win in Glendale on Monday, leaving Arizona with just one final opportunity to cut into the Wild's strangle hold on third place in the division.
Instead, Minnesota now holds a commanding 16-point advantage on Arizona - with two games in hand - and is just any combination of three points (Wild victories or Coyotes losses) the rest of the way from assuring themselves of finishing ahead of Arizona.
Los Angeles and St. Louis are the only other teams that can catch the Wild, although their chances are quickly diminishing as well. Minnesota plays the Kings at the Staples Center on Friday in what could amount to a psuedo-elimination game as well.

"Cam obviously kept us in the game early. Key times in the game, we thought ... their desperation was high," said Wild coach Dean Evason. "They came out, finished all the checks, played hard, set us back a little bit and we didn't catch it until late in the first, but probably more in the second.
"And then we started to get better, did in the second and then we thought we were real good in the third, but there's no question that Talbot] was real good in tonight's hockey game, not only early, but throughout."
After a handful of years in Edmonton, playing regularly against the Coyotes, Talbot has more wins against Arizona than any other team he's faced in his career. His record versus the Coyotes improved to 15-6-1 with a goals-against average of 2.17 and a save percentage north of .930.
"My goal is to go out there every night and, doesn't matter what team we're playing, it's just try to give us a chance to win every night," Talbot said. "That's what I was trying to do again tonight."
**Related:**
[Postgame Hat Trick: Wild 4, Coyotes 1