With the most assists on the team, Kirill Kaprizov has been on the ice for plenty of Wild goals already this season.
But finally, he was the cause of the celebration.
"It was huge," Marcus Foligno said, "and it's huge for the team, too."
The Wild emptied from its bench to surround Kaprizov behind the Senators net on Tuesday night after he scored his first goal of the season in overtime, sealing a 5-4 victory at Xcel Energy Center.
Not only did the goal put an end to an eight-game dry spell to start the season, but it was Kaprizov's third career overtime goal. Only four players in Wild history have scored more: Matt Dumba (6), Brent Burns (5), Mikko Koivu (5) and Marian Gaborik (4).
And since the beginning of last season, only three players (Florida's MacKenzie Weegar and Aleksander Barkov and Toronto's Auston Mathtews) have more regular-season overtime points than Kaprizov's five.
Overall, Kaprizov has a team-high seven assists and is tied with Foligno for the most points on the team at eight.
"A huge relief with the goal, but he had a lot of looks," Foligno said, "a lot of chances and played a better game for sure [Tuesday]."
Kaprizov wasn't the only one.
Kevin Fiala, who like Kaprizov struggled to produce through October, was also a factor.
Aside from setting up Kaprizov for the one-timer in overtime, Fiala also assisted on Nico Sturm's first-period goal to end his five-game pointless skid.
"Kev played awesome," Foligno said. "He's a guy that I think we all know we're hard on him because he's such a game-breaker and we want him to be the best. Sometimes when he's in that slump, he's gotta feel that there's a lot of confidence in him and that his teammates get going."
Resilient, however, doesn't just describe those two. It's a description fit for the entire team for the way it rebounded after blowing a two-goal lead twice to the Senators.
Ahead 2-0 and 3-1 in the first period, the Wild lost control in the second when Ottawa racked up three goals in 5 minutes, 36 seconds.
That second goal came on a power play after an unsuccessful coach's challenge by the Wild, which thought there was a high stick on the play before the Senators' second goal that went uncalled. Video review, however, didn't agree.
"They gained some momentum from that a little bit, and it kind of jumped them," Wild coach Dean Evason said.
After tying the score at 3 on the ensuing power play from the Wild's failed challenge, the Senators secured the lead when a puck bounced in off center Chris Tierney's shoulder.
But in a response reminiscent to earlier this season when the Wild thrived in comeback mode, the Wild didn't stress when trailing.
Foligno converted later in the second period on the power play and after 19 shots in the third period, the Wild finally prevailed to improve to 3-0 in overtime games this season.
The team is also tops in the NHL in one-goal games at 6-0.
"We just need to understand that we need to be nasty," Foligno said. "We need to be aggressive and desperate. We saw that in the first. We saw that in the third. We're lucky right now that it's two periods of good play that's getting these wins. When we play against some tougher teams, that might not be the case."
