NASHVILLE — The Predators had overwhelmed the Wild all season long, routing their Central Division rival in three previous matchups.
But Kevin Fiala wasn't as dominant then as he is now.
"He's lights out," Joel Eriksson Ek said. "He does everything, and it's so fun to watch."
In his latest jaw-dropping performance, Fiala set up a goal before scoring one himself — a 1:10 burst late in the second period that helped jolt the Wild to a 5-4 overtime victory on Sunday night at Bridgestone Arena that held plenty of significance for the team.
"Those two big goals gave us a lift and then we went into the third period knowing that we were going to win this game," said Dmitry Kulikov, whose third career overtime goal ended the Wild's eight-game skid in Nashville.
This victory also kept the Wild in second place in the Central Division with three games to go in the regular season. The Blues also have 109 points but remain in third having played once more.
Since March 8, the Wild is 19-2-4 with a league-high 42 points in that span. The team is now on its third season-high 10-game point streak, this an 8-0-2 run. Not only is the Wild just the eighth team in NHL history to record at least three 10-game point streaks in a season, it is the first since Colorado in 2000-01.
With 1.3 seconds left in overtime, Kulikov converted on a breakaway after Eriksson Ek won an intense puck battle. The assist capped off a three-point effort for Eriksson Ek, who has back-to-back three-point games and consecutive multi-goal games for the first time in his career.