ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Wild has already punched its ticket to the playoffs, but the Canucks haven't and their desperation was tough to handle.
After twice blowing a lead and then falling behind, the Wild needed an strong third period to shake off Vancouver, 6-3, on Thursday in front of 17,894 at Xcel Energy Center and pick up its 11th victory during a 12-game point streak at home while matching the franchise record for wins at 49.
Overall, the Wild has won three in a row during a 6-0-2 run and this result sealed a first-round matchup with the Blues. All that's left to be decided is who finishes second in the Central Division and claims home-ice advantage.
Kevin Fiala had a pair of goals, including the final tiebreaker with 7:43 remaining in the third period — a rising shot off a wraparound to improve the Wild to 15-1-3 over its last 19 games. With 1:55 left, Kirill Kaprizov potted his 44th goal before Ryan Hartman dumped the puck into an empty net at 18:47. Kaprizov also factored into that play, his third point of the game. He's at 97 points with five games left in the regular season
Before then, Mats Zuccarello pulled the Wild out of its first deficit when he deposited a Kaprizov pass behind Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko with 1:24 to go in the second.
That goal by Zuccarello capped off a high-scoring second period, with Vancouver flexing its determination as it continues to chase a wild card berth in the Western Conference as part of a dramatic second-half turnaround since former Wild coach Bruce Boudreau took over behind the bench.
After a scoreless first, Fiala kickstarted the offense with a one-timer off the rush at 4:53 set up by Frederick Gaudreau, who also assisted on Fiala's second goal. Matt Boldy's assist on the play tied Marian Gaborik for the longest point streak by a Wild rookie; this was Boldy's ninth point in that span.
As for Fiala, he's tied with Hartman for second on the team in goals at 32. During an eight-game point streak, Fiala has nine goals and seven assists.
But only 38 seconds later on the very next shift, the Canucks responded with an Elias Pettersson one-timer.
By 7:10, the Wild was back ahead after captain Jared Spurgeon's shot through traffic eluded Demko at 7:10. The goal was Spurgeon's 99th in the NHL and 10th this season, the fifth time in his career he's scored at least that many. That's the most in Wild history by a defenseman.
Again, though, Vancouver retaliated and this time the equalizer came at 9:22 when Matthew Highmore scooped up a bobbled puck by Spurgeon to skate in alone on Wild goalie Cam Talbot, who was starting in consecutive games for the first time since March 21 and 24 after the team was rotating starts between him and Marc-Andre Fleury.
Then at 16:09, Pettersson tallied his second of the night when he polished off a Conor Garland rebound for his 31st goal of the season.
Talbot totaled 21 saves while pushing his career-high point streak to 14 games. He's now 12-0-3 over his past 15 starts. Demko had 26 stops for the Canucks, which dropped its third game of the season to the Wild.
Neither power play was a factor; the Wild went 0 for 3 and Vancouver 0 for 2.
