Minnesota Wild 2-Hat Tricks, 10-Goal Win
ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Joel Eriksson Ek and Kirill Kaprizov each had hat tricks for the Minnesota Wild, who faced a three-goal deficit in the second period before storming back with six unanswered goals and hanging on for a record-filled 10-7 victory over the NHL-leading Vancouver Canucks on Monday.
Matt Boldy, Mats Zuccarello, Marco Rossi and Jonas Brodin also scored for the Wild, who set their franchise record for goals in a game. They also registered their fastest four-goal stretch in team history, all on the power play in a span of 2:17 to take a 6-5 lead early in the third period.
"It was all the guys," Minnesota coach John Hynes said when asked if he had a memorable speech for his team in the locker room before the third-period breakout. "You could feel the way -- in the game -- that there was no letdown. When it was 4-1, 5-2, the mindset was still the same. ... And then it was more of just staying with it."
The Minnesota goals came from Eriksson Ek, Kaprizov and Eriksson Ek again in the dizzying first 1:44 of the third period to make it 6-5. Then Rossi knocked in Jake Lucchini's shot off his skate at 4:48 and Kaprizov tacked on another one at 5:12 to further the damage to Canucks goalie Casey DeSmith.
Elias Pettersson got his team-leading 29th goal and Ian Cole had the first goal for the Canucks, who scored on their only two shots on net over the first 15-plus minutes of the game against Gustavsson.
The Canucks (37-14-6) took seven penalties and lost their second straight game.
The Wild, fighting to stay in contention in the Western Conference's wild-card standings, moved two points within the No. 8 spot with the victory.
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