Wild takes pregame tongue-lashing to heart, rolls to fifth-straight win

Midway through morning skate at Xcel Energy Center on Friday, Wild coach Dean Evason blew his whistle in disgust and ordered his players to gather near the logo at center ice.
The club's tempo and skating wasn't up to snuff, and Evason reminded his group that - for one reason or another - teams usually struggle in that first game back at home ice after a lengthy road trip.
It's something that has been a League-wide trend for years that nobody can ever seen to quantify.

Hoping to break that habit, Evason reminded his players of exactly was at stake, with an elevated tone of voice.
"We talked about that first game back, we said, we don't know why [teams struggle], coaches, we don't know why. We asked them and we said you guys probably don't know why, but for some reason there's a letdown," Evason said. "We talked as a staff. I rotated around there before the end of practice about just telling them right now. Why wait until tonight?"
Message sent, and after Friday night's first period, message received.
The Wild played one of its strongest 20-minute sessions in recent memory, scoring three goals in a span of just over three minutes to build a three-goal lead, one that carried Minnesota to a 3-1 victory over the Los Angeles Kings in St. Paul.
The victory extended the Wild's winning streak to a season-long five games, tied with Edmonton for the longest active win streak in the NHL. The win snapped L.A.'s six-game winning streak, and the Wild did so with some early oomph.

"I think it was brought to our attention this morning. In pregame skate, we didn't have our legs under us and we got a good kick in the butt," said Wild goaltender Cam Talbot. "Guys picked it up from there and we knew that that does happen quite a bit after long road trip is that little lull in the first period. We knew that if we were going to have success tonight that they're a good team that locks it down when they get the first goal. So we wanted to put an emphasis on that and be ready to start when the puck was dropped.
"And give the guys a lot of credit they came out and did just that."
Indeed.
After a 10-minute feeling-out period, the Wild stomped on the gas pedal by getting goals in successive fashion, three of them all in the span of just 183 seconds.
Even the time in between the goals was spent pressuring the Kings net, and L.A. goaltender Jonathan Quick was forced to make a handful of grade-A chances just to keep the Wild at three.

First, Kirill Kaprizov added to his nightly highlight reel by fighting off All-Star defenseman Drew Doughty, scoring a wraparound goal from his stomach after the world-class blueliner hauled him down in an effort just to slow the rookie forward.
It didn't work.
The goal was Kaprizov's fifth of the season and extended his points streak to four games. Mats Zuccarello, who had the second assist, ran his own streak to five games, a new career best.
"Ever since it seems like Zuccarello came into the lineup, he brought his swagger in with it and we all kind of followed," said Wild forward Nick Bjugstad. "It's a lot more fun when you're creating offense and everyone's kind of feeling it."

A couple of shifts later, Wild defenseman Ryan Suter dumped a puck into the offensive zone and saw it bounce off the end wall and right back into the slot. Bjugstad was there to finish off a backhand for a 2-zip lead. The goal was his 100th in the National Hockey League.
A minute after that, Joel Eriksson Ek finished off a chance in the slot after Quick had denied Kevin Fiala with an incredible glove save. The puck rolled back to Eriksson Ek's tape and he didn't miss.
The goal was Eriksson Ek's team-leading seventh in his 17th game of the season, one off his career high of eight that he scored in 62 games last year.

"Sometimes you need a little wakeup call in the morning," Bjugstad said. "You get a long flight, you get in late and you're playing the next day, sometimes you're not going to have your legs and especially in pregame skate.
"So I look at that as a good thing that happened this morning. We all took the message from [Evason] and I think the legs were there tonight, thankfully. It was a good all-around win and we're back at it again tomorrow night."
Los Angeles was saved by the buzzer late in the first as Minnesota spent the last 60 seconds pressuring for another goal.
"We were talking before the game started about coming out with good energy, having a good focus, and the first period was the result of that good energy and focus," Suter said. "The second period they picked up their game and started to play their style and had us back on our heels - we had some turnovers there in the second. It definitely is a good thing coming out of the first period up three goals."

The Kings did even the game in the second and third periods, but couldn't find a way to solve Talbot - playing in his first game in nearly a month after spending time on the COVID-19 protocol list - until the final five minutes of regulation.
Talbot finished with 27 saves, earning his first victory since Jan. 31, which was also the Wild's last home game before Friday.
"Getting the early offensive support] kind of calms you down and takes a little pressure off you to make that next save," Talbot said. "I was just trying to go out there, stay focused, put pucks where I want to put them, eat pucks when I could, just try to play as calm as possible and tried to make less work for myself in my first game back. I thought I was able to do a pretty good job of that tonight. Anytime I wasn't able to, the guys did a great job in front of me."
The victory, combined with Colorado's 3-2 win in Arizona, moved the Wild into a second-place tie with the St. Louis Blues with 22 points. Minnesota does have three games in hand. Both teams trail the first-place Vegas Golden Knights by one point.
**Related:**
[Postgame Hat Trick: Wild 3, Kings 1