Minnesota Wild show again they are a team to contend with

It might be too soon to call the Minnesota Wild a Stanley Cup contender. But it is clear that the Wild are a team to contend.

The latest example came Saturday night as the Wild edged the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-3 in a shootout in a matchup between two of the hottest teams in the NHL. Mats Zuccarello and Kirill Kaprizov had the Wild’s goals in the shootout.

It gave the Wild a sixth-straight win for a team that also swept a five-game stand at the Xcel Energy Center,  The Maple Leafs were not only the final, but the highlight game of the homestand as Toronto came in having won five straight and had lost just two of its previous 17 games.

Wild coach Dean Evason was asked in a postgame media session if it was a statement win.

“I don’t know about the whole environment, I just know that, like when we played the Islanders, it was a good statement game,” Evason said. “It’s a good hockey club regardless of where they are from or whose watching or what television station is putting it on. (Toronto) is a good hockey club and we are measuring where we are.

“We think we are a good hockey club,” Evason said. “It showed here tonight.”

The Wild showed the ability to respond to adversity.  After the Maple Leafs tied the game with three straight goals in the second period, the Wild outshot Toronto 22-11 in a scoreless third period to regain momentum.

“After the second period we did talk to the group,” Evason said. “We made some mistakes. We allowed them momentum and it bit us. But the biggest message was, ‘We’re even. We’re not down.’

“Good thing the period ended and we talked about how the momentum hopefully stopped for them,” Evason said. “And now that we can take it back and we did. We thought the third period was real good. We did so many good things.”

The Wild have done a lot of good things so far this year as the team has 35 points through 24 games, which marks the best start in franchise history. Minnesota also sits in first place in the Central Division and entered Sunday tied with Calgary for the most points in the Western Conference.

Minnesota holds a 10-2 record in St. Paul this season  and begins a four-game road trip on Tuesday. The first matchup will be statement game against an Edmonton Oilers squad which is second place in the Pacific Division, behind the Flames.

The Oilers have  the league’s top two scorers in Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid, and Edmonton is averaging 3.77 goals per game as a team.

Minnesota has been even better as its 89 goals are second only to the Florida Panthers.

The Wild face another test on Tuesday but have shown so far this year — as the Maple Leafs game was an example of — that they are up to the challenge.