Wild rout Predators, 6-1 Nashville streak ends at six

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In Nashville, the visiting Minnesota Wild broke out to a 3-0 lead over the Predators after one period, and 5-0 after two, en route to a 6-1 win on Thursday.

Connor Dewar hit for a hat trick in the win.

“I find in this league, it’s kind of a streaky league,” Dewar said. “When you get confident, you get hot. Hopefully I get on a roll here.”

The Wild improved to 7-10-4 off their second straight win under new coach John Hynes.

“I just think we did what we wanted to do, which was continue to build off the identity and the mindset that we played with against St. Louis,” Hynes said. “I thought the guys played with good energy — we’re playing a fast game. They’re competing really, really hard. I think our puck execution and puck decisions have been strong.”

Filip Gustavsson made 26 saves in the win.

Dewar scored the first of his hat trick at 6:08 of the opening stanza for a 1-0 lad to the Wild.

Jake Middleton pushed the advantage to 2-0 at 14:01.

Kirill Kaprizov ballooned the lead to it to 3-0 with a power-play strike 31 seconds later.

The middle frame started off with a goal from Pat Maroon at 1:43 for a 4-0 lead.

“It’s completely different teams, I would say,” Maroon said. “Wouldn’t you think? For us right now, we’re playing faster. We’re getting up in the play. We’re three-quarter icing them right now. We have good gaps. We’re back-pressuring and closing in on them fast, and we have fast transition right now. The faster you play like that, the faster you get on offense.”

Juuso Parssinen was the lone striker for the Predators.

Nashville dropped to 11-11-0, and lost their winning streak at six games.

“Not the performance we need,” Nashville forward Ryan O’Reilly said. “That’s not us. It’s disappointing because that’s a divisional team. That’s a big game for us. It’s definitely disappointing, but we have to move on and kind of regroup here, and just get back and keep going ahead.”

Dewar hit his double at 11:12 of the middle frame off a breakaway marker.

Nashville finally got on the board at 2:37 of the third to make it palatable at 5-1 on Parssinen goal

Dewar picked up his hat trick midway through the third for the 6-1 win.

Backroads Guitars

Juuse Saros got the start for Nashville, and surrendered four goals while making 11 saves before getting the hook in the middle frame.

Kevin Lankinen made 14 saves in a mop up role.

“I think lack of execution, lack of will,” Predators coach Andrew Brunette said. “We knew coming in we were facing a really hungry team that was going to be highly motivated, and we didn’t match the intensity. And when you don’t match the intensity in this League, you don’t win too many nights.”