ST. PAUL — The Minnesota Wild ended their three-game homestand with their best offensive game of the season, which resulted in a 7-4 win over the Edmonton Oilers — who were without an injured Connor McDavid — inside Xcel Energy Center on Tuesday night.
The win moves the Wild to 3-2-1 with seven points ahead of their three-game road trip in Philadelphia, Washington and New Jersey.
Here are three takeaways from the win:
Wild overcome slow start
The Wild continued their trend Tuesday night of starting sluggish in the first period. But, unlike past games, the Wild overcame the slow start and outplayed the Oilers in the final two periods. The Wild do need to be better out of the gate and with setting the tone, though.
The Oilers capitalized early against the Wild with Evan Bouchard scoring on the first shot of the game 54 seconds into the contest. Then the Wild were forced to kill off an early 5-on-3 opportunity to the eighth-best power play in the league when Jon Merrill and Jonas Brodin took minors within the first two and a half minutes. In all, the Wild had four minor penalties in the first period.
Foegele scored his first of the night with 1:33 left in the first to give the Oilers a 2-1 lead after Marco Rossi tied the game.
Fortunately for the Wild, they went into the first intermission with a 2-2 tie after Ryan Hartman scored his first of three goals 34 seconds after Foegele’s go-ahead marker with 59 seconds left in the first.
But the Wild started slow again in the second and paid for it as Foegele found the back of the net again 32 seconds in on the first shot of the middle frame.
To the Wild's credit, they didn’t allow their start to dictate the result and found the back of the net five times in the third period for their third win of the season.
The Wild finished with 55 percent of the shot attempt share and 66 percent of the expected goal share in all situations in the final two periods, according to Natural Stat Trick. That was much improved after the Oilers outplayed the Wild in the first period.
The Wild were also much better defensively after giving up 54 shots to the Blue Jackets on Saturday.
"We were solid in that area against a team that obviously can score goals even without their guy McDavid, but they still can score a lot of goals," head coach Dean Evason said of their defense.
"So what we did defensively was good. What we really liked about that is we got the heck out of our defensive zone quickly, (and) we didn't spend a lot of time in there."
Top line heats up
The Wild’s top line of Kirill Kaprizov, Ryan Hartman and Mats Zuccarello had their best game of the season on Tuesday night with three five-on-five goals in the third period, which matched their goal output through the first five games of the season.
"We felt they were trending in the right direction," Evason said. ... "They did look like the line that we've known them to be."
Added Jake Middleton: "You knew this was going to happen at some point."
The Wild, 0-2-1 in their past three games, needed more production from their top line, and the trio delivered ahead of an important three-game road trip.
"Felt good, yeah," Hartman said of his line being due for a game like this. "We were able to find each other. We kind of talked about it as a line. We've been watching some shifts together, and too many times we were trying to get inside or were forcing a little bit.
"I think we've been kind of keeping it and waiting for our moment to strike as opposed to forcing it. So we've been holding onto it and making really good plays. That was the difference."
Hartman’s hat trick capped off a five-point night for him, while Kaprizov had three assists and Zuccarello had a goal and assist. This line is integral to Minnesota’s success, and the Wild need them to build off what they did in the third period moving forward.
It’s a good sign that the Wild got offensive contributions from numerous places in the lineup aside from the first line. Middleton had three assists, and Rossi scored his second NHL goal.
"Fortunately I got to be a part of that top line coming to life," Middleton said.
The newly-created — in Matt Boldy’s absence — second line of Marcus Johansson, Joel Eriksson Ek and Pat Maroon also found the scoresheet.
There’s no question that it’s the Wild’s best night of the season so far offensively. Not just because they scored a season-high seven goals, but because of the amount of chances they had.
Oilers goaltender Jack Campbell stole the show in the second period after making some key first-period stops. Campbell robbed Kaprizov on a one-timer from the right circle and made a nice glove save on a slapshot from Calen Addison inside the blue line.
But his biggest robbery of the night was on Pat Maroon on a 2-on-1 opportunity with Kaprizov.
The Wild couldn’t figure Campbell out in the middle frame, but they did in the third period.
"How many chances did we have that we couldn't capitalize on?" Middleton said of their second period scoring opportunities. "Frustration — you could feel it wanting to set in like it has at the start of these last couple games, and we've stuck with it and finally scored more than they did."
Eriksson Ek off to strong start
Eriksson Ek has picked up right where he left off last season. The 26-year-old center had offseason surgery this summer for a broken fibula that he suffered from blocking a shot that came off the stick of Penguins star Evgeni Malkin on April 6.
It hasn't affected Eriksson Ek at all this season in terms of getting back into form. He looks like the same player, and he leads the Wild with five goals through six games and continues to be one of their most important players on a steal of a contract.
With Eriksson Ek on the ice this season, the Wild have had 53.60 percent of the expected goal share in all situations — the fourth highest among Wild forwards.
Eriksson Ek had a two-point night on Tuesday, which included a third-period goal where he beat Campbell top shelf after making a slick move in tight.
Here's a postgame video analysis from Dylan Loucks: