MINNEAPOLIS — The Wild is on a climb to reclaim the top seed in the Central Division, while the Canadiens have sunk to last place in the NHL.
Just how far apart those two directions are trending was captured Monday night in front of 18,104 at Xcel Energy Center when the Wild crushed the Canadiens 8-2 for its third consecutive victory and sixth in its past seven games.
Rookie Connor Dewar potted his first NHL goal, nine players overall had at least two points and goaltender Cam Talbot made 14 stops through two periods before leaving the game in what was his first start since sustaining a lower-body injury at the Winter Classic. Kaapo Kahkonen made five saves in relief.
As for Kirill Kaprizov, he became the fastest in Wild history to reach 100 career points. Mats Zuccarello and Kevin Fiala are tied for the longest active point streak in the NHL.
The eight goals were a season high for the Wild and tied a franchise record.
But this dominating performance for the Wild didn't start until after the first shot of the game.
Montreal scored on its first attempt when Mike Hoffman connected on a bouncing puck 1 minutes, 23 seconds into the first period.
After that, though, the Wild played keepaway from the Canadiens, racking up a season-high 21 first-period shots while seizing the lead.
Captain Jared Spurgeon tied the score at 3:04 when his shot wove through traffic and behind goalie Cayden Primeau. Then, Marcus Foligno buried a rebound that sailed in at 9:22 for his third goal in as many games and 17th of the season.
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The finish also secured a new career high in points at 27 for Foligno, who is tied with Kaprizov for the second-most goals on the Wild. Jordan Greenway assisted on that goal and Spurgeon's, after having a hand in the game-tying and game-winning goals in the team's 4-3 overtime rally Saturday vs. the Blackhawks.
More of the same happened in the second, with the Wild's fourth line taking over the scoring duties.
Dewar tallied his first goal on a slick play, skating the puck through the neutral zone before wiring in a shot from deep in the slot at 4:01.
On the next shift, only 22 seconds later, Nico Sturm directed in a puck that was clipped by Dewar, giving Dewar his first career multipoint game.
With 31 seconds left in the second, Zuccarello piled on the rout with a shot that squeaked through Primeau for his 15th point during his career-long nine-game point streak.
Both teams changed goalies for the third, with Michael McNiven making his NHL debut in place of Primeau, who exited with 27 saves. McNiven finished with four.
Like Talbot, Kahkonen was also eluded by the first shot he faced, a puck off the stick of former Wild forward Rem Pitlick at 4:24.
But the Wild answered back with not one but two goals.
After flexing his puck-handling skills earlier in the game, Matt Boldy capitalized in-tight on the power play at 6:04. The Wild ended up 1-for-5 with the man advantage, and Montreal went 0-for-2.
Kaprizov and Zuccarello both earned significant assists on the play. The helper counted as Kaprizov's 100th career point, making him the fastest in Wild history to reach that milestone (92 games), and Zuccarello set a new career high in points with the Wild at 38; he had 37 through 65 games in his debut season with the team.
Later in the third, Jordie Benn scored his first goal as a member of the Wild at 9:58.
With assists on the play, Fiala also kept his nine-game point streak going while Sturm notched a career-high three-point game.
Fiala also tacked on a goal at 15:12.
