Postgame Hat Trick: Wild 5, Panthers 1

Dan Myers gives three takeaways from the Wild's 5-1 victory against the Florida Panthers on Tuesday night at Xcel Energy Center:

1. It's not even Christmas, but Eric Staal may have nailed down the celly of the year award.
With Minnesota ahead 2-0 late in the second period, Staal got loose on a breakaway. His initial shot was stopped by Panthers goaltender Roberto Luongo, but the rebound popped into the air, where Staal batted it past the goalie and into the net for his seventh goal and 20th point.
As solid as the goal was, the celebration -- and perhaps more specifically, the facial expression -- was even better. It's sure to be captioned on social media by fans in the State of Hockey for days to come.
The veteran center, who has garnered a reputation for under-the-radar cellys this season, ripped off another beauty on Tuesday.
All I can say? Pure bliss. Don't believe me? Look for yourself:

An underrated late add to Staal's celly: The uppercut fist pump straight into the fly-by. Outstanding.
Staal's goal also came at a critical moment of the game. Just over a minute after the Wild successfully challenged a Panthers goal for being offsides -- a goal that would have made it a one-goal game -- Staal came in alone to completely change the momentum.

"That was really important. I think that made it 3-nothing. You go from 2-1 to 3-nothing, that's a big difference," said Wild forward Zach Parise. "We've been on the other side of that where it's kind of deflating when it happens to you. For us, that was a really important one."

2. After snapping a point skid on Sunday in a win against the St. Louis Blues, Parise said "adios" to a goal drought on Tuesday.
"I gotta shoot the puck a little more and get to the net a little more," Parise said. "I've had better chances lately that haven't gone in. Fortunately that went in tonight."

His snap shot from the left circle at 11:19 of the first period got the Wild on the board and ended his goal-scoring skid at eight games. It was the fifth goal of the season for Parise, who is starting to look more and more comfortable after missing a chunk of games earlier this season with a lower-body injury.
"It was good to see him get one early. He had opportunities," said Wild coach Bruce Boudreau. "I thought he played a really good game like he was blocking shots, especially in the first period when we needed it, he did. I thought he was exceptional."

3. Minnesota's penalty kill was fantastic on Tuesday night.
Florida (13-13-4) went 0-for-5 with the man advantage, rarely even sniffing a quality scoring opportunity. The Wild (16-8-4) had a couple of crucial kills too. The PK handled a 4-on-3 less than three minutes into the game, killing a Suter high-sticking call 58 seconds into the second period, and cleaned up another penalty four minutes after Staal's goal midway through the middle frame.
All three Panthers' power plays had the opportunity to swing momentum had they capitalized. Minnesota made sure its penalty kill, which has been solid over the past handful of games, was up to the task.
"I thought we got the clears when we had the chance, and that's huge," said Wild forward Erik Haula. "Off their rush, we made it difficult for them to get into the zone and we were able to create some battles and get the puck down."
The Wild has killed 15 of its past 16 opponent power plays over the past five games and has climbed to sixth-best in the NHL (84.7 percent).

Loose Pucks

• Mikko Koivu scored his seventh goal of the season at 6:04 of the third to make it 4-0. It was Koivu's fifth goal in the past 10 games.
• Each of Minnesota's top three lines scored at least one goal.

• Jason Zucker scored on a breakaway at 8:26 of the third. Zucker is averaging a point per game over his past 10 games.
• Devan Dubnyk stopped 29 shots to improve to 14-6-3.
• Panthers goaltender Roberto Luongo was pulled for the fourth time in his past seven starts at Xcel Energy Center after allowing five goals on just 17 shots on Tuesday. He dropped to 3-12-3 lifetime in St. Paul.
• Attendance: 18,754

He Said It

"We need to keep climbing. It's exciting to be in this spot with games at hand as well and again those games don't matter unless we win them but it's still a good situation to be in and winning is fun so you just gotta keep doing it." -- Wild goaltender Devan Dubnyk on the club's five-game winning streak

They Said It

"It's a bad loss. We didn't generate enough scoring chances. We outshot them, I get it, but our shots were from the outside and we didn't have enough guys going to the net. So it's just part of the game we're going to have to continually work on. Guys have got to understand that if you're going to play in the National Hockey League you've got to show up every single day, can't show up when you feel like it." --Panthers General Manager and interim coach Tom Rowe

Three Stars

* Jason Pominville
\\ Devan Dubnyk
\\* Eric Staal