Success on Wild’s seven-game road trip inches them closer to top of Western Conference

SEATTLE − Marcus Foligno missed his three daughters the most.

“They’re getting sick and tired of me on FaceTime,” Foligno said.

For Brock Faber, it was a homecooked meal after eating out so much.

“Sometimes you get sick of the same six or seven guys, seeing them every night at 6 o’clock,” he said.

Jesper Wallstedt is ready for familiarity.

“Just sleep in my bed, play some computer games, and just hang out and play in front of our fans again,” Wallstedt said. “I look forward to that a lot.”

The Wild are finally going back to Minnesota after a seven-game, 14-day voyage while the World Junior Championship took over Grand Casino Arena, and as unique as the trip was — the team had never been away that long before — the Wild are better for it after going 4-1-2.

This means the battle is on between the Wild and Dallas for home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs, and for the Wild to keep this momentum going they’ll have to treat their return home like their last road game because the challenge will be the same.

“I’m excited to see what we do,” Wild coach John Hynes said.

Mats Zuccarello’s overtime goal, off a Kirill Kaprizov pass and after Brock Faber dropped to the ice to block a Kraken shot, is what sent the Wild packing up with a 3-2 win on Thursday, Jan. 8.

But the team’s mindset was just as responsible for the victory as its execution.

The Wild started sharp, establishing a 2-0 lead in the first period on goals from Ryan Hartman and Faber while playing with tunnel vision: They looked determined to finish their trip rebounding from a lethargic loss in Los Angeles earlier in the week. Zuccarello was injured during their previous game in Seattle on a hit by Vince Dunn, but the Wild didn’t concentrate on retribution after Dunn declined a fight invitation from Hartman.

“It’s a game. You have to win two points, and going forward that’s how it has to be for our team.”

With how the Wild were controlling the puck in the second period, they could have routed the Kraken.

That they didn’t was costly because after Seattle capitalized early in the third, the Wild took back-to-back penalties, and the Kraken scored the equalizer on the power play.

To make matters worse for the Wild, they were without Joel Eriksson Ek, who left in the second period hurt after getting tied up with another player at the bench — what Hynes described as a freak accident. Eriksson Ek is considered day-to-day with a lower-body injury.

But instead of eyeing the exit, the Wild stayed committed to the task in front of them, and they were rewarded for it.

“Make sure that we’re where our feet are,” Hynes said, “and I thought our guys responded and delivered.”

If this attitude follows them home, it should help the Wild avoid the trap that’s usually the first game back after a long trip.

Those tend to be tricky, and the Wild don’t have much time to prepare since they’ll play host to the New York Islanders on Saturday, Jan. 10. But they’ve put themselves in a position where the big picture is getting interesting if they can remain physically and mentally ready.

“It’s a grueling season schedule-wise,” Foligno said. “But we have the rest of this month, a little bit of February, to focus on it, take it a game at a time. [The Olympic] break’s going to come pretty quick.