ST. PAUL, Minn. — Mats Zuccarello joked earlier this week that luck — not skill — is the biggest reason for his recent success.
Well, if that’s the case, he might want to go buy a lotto ticket after pacing the Wild to a 4-1 win over the Blackhawks on Friday night at Xcel Energy Center. He’s clearly the luckiest player in the league. That’s the only explanation for how well he’s playing, right?
Not only did Zuccarello record a hat trick to continue his recent hot streak, he made everyone around him better as the top line for the Wild dominated the Blackhawks from the onset. As if Zuccarello’s impressive performance wasn’t enough, Kirill Kaprizov added a goal and a pair of assists, and Sam Steel had a pair of assists.
The dominance was on display early in the first period as Zuccarello made it 1-0 by finishing off a tic-tac-toe sequence worthy of a spot on SportsCenter’s Top 10. It started with Steel connecting on a tape-to-tape pass to Kaprizov, continued with Kaprizov saucing a seam pass to Zuccarello in front and ended with Zuccarello settling the puck down and guiding it past the goal line.
To say Blackhawks goaltender Petr Mrazek never had a chance would be an understatement.
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That said, Mrazek bounced back with a few big saves to keep the game from getting out of hand. Matt Boldy had a surefire goal taken away on a couple of occasions as did Zuccarello on a shot near the crease.
Eventually, the Wild broke through as Kaprizov cleaned up a loose puck in front to make it 2-0 midway through the second period. The scoring chance started with Zuccarello firing a shot on net and Steel also got an assist in the process.
As the second period wound to a close, Zuccarello struck again, stretching the lead to 3-0 after a pretty pass from Boldy in close. That put Zuccarello on the precipice of a hat trick with 20 minutes left in the game.
It looked like it might never come as the Wild left off the gas a little bit in the third period, allowing Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews to cut the deficit to it 3-1.
In the final minutes of the game, Zuccarello finally completed his hat trick, firing the puck into the empty net to finalize the score at 4-1.
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