ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Wild reignited its offense and rebounded from an uncharacteristic off night in its return from the All-Star break.
In the process, the team proved its seat in the standings among the best in the NHL isn't a fluke.
That's the confirmation that comes with taking down a Stanley Cup contender, which the Wild accomplished by holding off the Hurricanes, 3-2, on Saturday in front of 18,802 at Xcel Energy Center to seal its seventh victory over the last eight games.
At home, the Wild is on a 12-game point streak after winning 11 in that span.
Goalie Cam Talbot got in the way of 37 shots, while Kevin Fiala, Kirill Kaprizov and Frederick Gaudreau supplied the goals with Fiala and Gaudreau each adding an assist. Andrei Svechnikov had both of Carolina's tallies.
Fiala broke the scoreless stalemate 10 minutes, 14 seconds into the second period with his 10th goal over his last 14 games and 14th overall this season.
After collecting a Gaudreau centering attempt that caromed off traffic, Fiala veered to the outside and wired a shot just under the crossbar and by Hurricanes goalie Frederik Andersen.
Fiala, who is third on the team in scoring, has 18 of his 36 points over his last 14 games.
In the third, Kaprizov doubled the Wild's lead at 1:16 when he scooped up a Mats Zuccarello pass, split a pair of Hurricanes players and then buried his own rebound after Andersen made the initial save.
That was Kaprizov's team-leading 20th goal and 22nd point over his past 13 contests. Among players to debut with the Wild, he's the first player to begin his career with consecutive 20-goal seasons. Zuccarello's assist was his third point in as many games and 15th helper over his last 13.
Only 1:18 later, Gaudreau wristed in a pass from linemate Fiala for his sixth point in his last six games. With an assist, Fiala is up to four multi-point efforts over his last six games and has 10 this season.
This was the 13th time over the Wild's previous 14 games the team has racked up at least three goals.
The lone glitch in that batch came last Tuesday in the Wild's first game back from the All-Star break, a 2-0 loss at Winnipeg that snapped a six-game win streak and marked the first time this season the Wild was shut out.
But after a day off and two practice sessions between then and Saturday, the Wild's offense bounced back and the team ended up needing all those goals.
Svechnikov capitalized at 5:02 of the third on a stealthy shot from the slot that spoiled Talbot's bid at back-to-back shutouts. This was Talbot's first start since a 5-0 win February 2 at Chicago.
Then, 1:21 later, Svechnikov scored again, this time on a one-timer on the power play. Carolina finished 1 for 4, and the Wild blanked on its two looks. Andersen totaled 24 saves.
But the Hurricanes wouldn't get any closer. The Wild ended up blocking 18 shots in front of Talbot compared to four for Carolina.
With the win, the Wild leapfrogged Nashville to climb into second place in the Central Division and Western Conference.
The team trails first-place Colorado by nine points with two games at-hand.
