Wild picks up two huge points with victory over Nashville

When he was promoted to interim head coach less than three weeks ago, replacing the fired Bruce Boudreau, Dean Evason forecasted an aggressive style by the Wild.

But that hasn't been his only message.

Evason also has preached predictability, a term that could suggest being stagnant or an aversion to change. To Evason, though, it's how he labels consistency.

"It's predictable with our work ethic every night," he explained.

The directive must have clicked with players because the Wild hasn't wavered much under Evason's watch — so much so that the results are starting to look like the team's new normal instead of the honeymoon glow from a different voice in charge.

"I hope so," Evason said. "We just prepare, go about our business and go play."

That's how the Wild carried itself Tuesday, jumping out to an early lead and then taming the Predators 3-1 in front of 17,242 at Xcel Energy Center in the team's most meaningful game of the season so far.

With 73 points, the Wild hurdled Nashville and Arizona to sit a point shy of Winnipeg for the second Western Conference wild card and Vancouver for the first wild card. A Jets win earlier in the evening kept the Wild just shy of a playoff position for the first time since December.

If it keeps this push up, though, the wait might not last much longer.

"I feel if we play like this," Kevin Fiala said, "we're going to be dangerous."

Fiala was a catalyst yet again, scoring the winning goal against the team that traded him to the Wild a year ago and setting up another for his fifth straight multi-point game — a franchise record.

And goalie Alex Stalock was almost unbeatable, snuffing out 37 shots for his 19th victory and eighth in his past 11 starts.

"These are the games you want to play in as any competitor," Stalock said, "and I love situations like this."

A fast start by the Wild paved the way for its fourth victory in the past five games, which improved it to 10-4-1 over the past 15 and 6-3 under Evason.

Luke Kunin buried his own rebound 4 minutes, 7 seconds into the first after being left alone in front. Later, the Wild's lead doubled on a highlight-reel goal from — who else — Fiala.

He toe-dragged around a sprawled Ryan Ellis during a 2-on-1 rush and roofed the puck over goalie Juuse Saros at 12:04. The goal was Fiala's 21st of the season and 12th over the past 15 games.

The Wild increased its lead at 1:38 of the third when Zach Parise pounced on a Fiala centering feed. Parise's team-leading 24th goal was his third goal in his past four games. As for Fiala, the assist counted as his 23rd point in his past 15 games.

"He's on fire right now," Parise said. "Nice goals, too. Not my kind of goals."

Nashville ended Stalock's shutout bid at 5:07 during its fourth of five power plays, a shot by Craig Smith, but the Wild held on the rest of the way amid fearless defending.

"Everyone was really committed," Evason said. "Certainly, that shows at the end like that where we're diving in front of pucks and doing absolutely everything we can to keep it out of the net."

That effort has been paying off on the ice. Now it's translating to the standings.

"It was such a big game that it was even more exciting against those guys to show what we've got," Fiala said. "And we did it. But still, [there's] 16 games left. We can't be satisfied with this one."