Wild gets back to winning ways in the Central, topping Chicago 3-1

The results are starting to rebound: back-to-back wins for the second time in as many weeks, only one regulation loss in the past five games and a 4-1-1 run over the past six.

But even more important to the Wild is how the team is arriving at these outcomes, and that's implementing its pre-slump habits; a methodical 3-1 takedown of the Blackhawks Saturday afternoon in front of 19,226 at Xcel Energy Center was the latest revival.

"It's the Minnesota Wild game," goalie Cam Talbot said, "and we kind of got back to that here."

Sound defending backed by no-nonsense goaltending combined with timely scoring to secure only the third season sweep vs. Chicago (4-0) in franchise history.

Ryan Hartman scored with 3 minutes, 13 seconds to go in the third period, snapping a 1-1 stalemate after Seth Jones' rising shot 8:57 into the third period spoiled Talbot's shutout bid. Before then, Talbot rattled off 18 consecutive saves and racked up 21 overall with the Blackhawks' quality of shots trumping their quantity.

At the other end, Kevin Lankinen made 31 stops.

"We played as good a game defensively as we had in a while, and that's what it takes this time of year," said Talbot, who has won five in a row for the first time since going 6-0 Nov. 24-Dec. 9. "There's no blowouts, really, this time of year. It's going to be those one-, two-game goals with an empty-netter kind of thing.

"You have to be comfortable with those situations, and the last couple of games we've shown that we can play those."

BOXSCORE: Wild 3, Chicago 1

Frederick Gaudreau opened the scoring at 16:36 of the first period, accepting a Kevin Fiala pass and wiring the puck in from the slot.

Fiala's assist notched a new career high in points at 55, and that lead held for the rest of the first and all the second, with Talbot posting some key stops in the process. He got across in time to block Kirby Dach's one-timer on a penalty kill late in the middle frame and also denied Dominik Kubalik before the second ended.

"Obviously, the guys have been playing great in front of me, too, and allowed me to see those first opportunities," said Talbot, who also had a breakaway save against Chicago's Boris Katchouk in the third. "I've just been trying to limit the second chances, and they've been doing a great job in front of me and they're fun to play behind."

Despite Lankinen stymieing the Wild in the aftermath of Gaudreau's goal and Jones eventually serving up the equalizer, the Wild wasn't frazzled.

Instead, the team's top line responded with the game-deciding sequence: a heads-up forecheck by Kirill Kaprizov that led to Mats Zuccarello passing off to Hartman, who flung the puck by Lankinen before the goaltender could get set.

"I've been playing with Zuccy for a while now, and you know that he's passing that puck 101 percent of the time," said Hartman, whose 25 goals trail only Kaprizov's 32. "Obviously, he's a great passer and made a great play."

Zuccarello's assist registered a new career high in points (62), and Kaprizov's 76 points are behind only two players in franchise history (Marian Gaborik's 83 from 2007-08 and Brian Rolston's 79 in 2005-06).

As for Jordan Greenway, he's on a career-long three-game goal streak after dumping the puck 180 feet into an empty Chicago net with seven seconds to go in the third. Neither power play scored, with the Wild going 0-for-3 and Chicago 0-for-2.

"That's playoff hockey," coach Dean Evason said. "It's the time of year that you're not going to score easy goals, and I don't care who you're playing in this league. At this time of year, everybody's tight and playing properly."

That wasn't the case for the Wild earlier this month, when it had just two wins in a 10-game span.

But with more efforts like this, the team will continue to distance itself from that skid and have a chance to repeat its earlier success.

"We know who we are," Hartman said. "We know how good of a team we are when we play the right way."