NASHVILLE — The Predators had overwhelmed the Wild all season long, routing their Central Division rival in three previous matchups.
Dmitry Kulikov beats the overtime buzzer, scoring to spark Wild over Predators 5-4
Kulikov found the net with 1.3 seconds remaining in the extra session, and Joel Eriksson Ek's assist on the goal was his third point of the game.
April 25, 2022 at 4:53AM
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.
"Don't get many of them," Kulikov said of his breakaway, which came after Nashville's Dante Fabbro tied the score at 14:20 of the third period. "That's why I gotta make sure when I get them."
The Wild's two goals before that play were also clutch.
Trailing 3-2 late in the second, Fiala wove the puck to Eriksson Ek for a power play tally with 1:33 left in the period; the goal was Eriksson Ek's fourth over his last two games. He's up to 25 on the season, a career high.
Then just 1:10 later, Fiala flexed his finesse by eluding two Predators to cut into the slot and unleash a ferocious backhander by goaltender David Rittich.
"I kinda saw they were pretty tired," Fiala said. "So I kind of wanted to do something, create something, and I saw a hole."
Fiala passed Marian Gaborik for the second-most points in a Wild season at 84. Only Kirill Kaprizov has more points on the Wild than Fiala. Kaprizov is at 103 after picking up two assists. Fiala's 33 goals are tied with Ryan Hartman for second on the team.
This was also the fifth straight game Fiala has recorded multiple points, a tear that ties his career best and is one shy of matching the Wild record. He has 10 goals and 13 assists for 23 points during a 10-game point streak, becoming only the fourth NHLer this season to have multiple point streaks of at least 10 games.
"I'm playing hockey, having fun and, really, I don't think about anything else," said Fiala, whose goal was assisted by Matt Boldy for a career-high nine-game point streak that is the Wild rookie record and the longest by a rookie in the NHL this season.
This two-goal response by the Wild was important.
After blowing an early lead off a Nick Bjugstad power play goal 11:05 into the first when Filip Forsberg scored with 3 seconds left in the period, the Wild had an Eriksson Ek tally at 6:36 of the second that withstood a goalie interference challenge overshadowed by consecutive Nashville power play markers.
Matt Duchene had the first at 10:40 and Ryan Johansen the second 2:58 later, this after the Wild whiffed on a 5-on-3 after the Predators' unsuccessful challenge and unsportsmanlike conduct penalty to Rittich, who made 42 saves. Marc-Andre Fleury had 21 while improving to 8-1 with the Wild, which ended up 2-for-7 on the power play; the Predators went 2-for-5.
To make matters worse for the Wild, the team was missing captain Jared Spurgeon, who left the first period with an upper-body injury after getting crushed into the boards by Forsberg.
Cue Fiala.
"That turned around the game, to come into the locker room with a lead," Eriksson Ek said. "It helps us to create that little bit more energy that maybe we needed."
The Wild have been the surprise of the league as their high-scoring winger makes a shambles of team scoring records.
