Wild rout Winnipeg, 7-1

In St Paul, the Minnesota Wild broke out the offense on Friday in a 7-1 win over the Winnipeg Jets.

Mats Zuccarello struck for a pair of goals for the Wild.

Cam Talbot made 30 saves in the Minnesota win.

“Tonight we played a heck of a team game,” Talbot said. “We had a lot of jump from the get-go. We knew that this is a big game, not only first game back home after Thanksgiving, but where these guys are in the standings. They’re right behind us and this is a chance for a little separation early and to start this homestand off right.”

Minnesota improved to 13-6-1.

Pierre-Luc Dubois scored the lone Jets goal after the game was out of reach at 6-0.

The Jets dropped to 9-7-4.

Kirill Kaprizov had a goal and four points on the night for the Wild.

The Wild’s Alex Goligoski struck for a goal with just 52 seconds gone in the game.

Zuccarello doubled the lead to 2-0 with his first of the game in the opening period.

In the middle frame, the Wld’s Ryan Hartman hit for a goal to make it 3-0; Zuccarello potted his second of the for a 4-0 lead.

“Up two goals and really just the way we were able to extend it and keep that momentum going and not give them anything, not let them back in the game whatsoever, it was great to see,” Hartman said. “And it’s something that hopefully we can look at and look back to this when we do get in these situations know that it’s there.”

Matt Dumba stretched the Wild lead to 6-0 erarly in the third period.

“We continue to talk about our depth and it’s not one or two guys scoring,” Wild head coach Dean Evason said. “So lots been made of guys that don’t score on our team but not a lot’s made of our depth scoring or I assume. So that’s a very good thing.”

Connor Hellebuyck surrendered four before getting the hook in the second stanza; he made 10 saves.

“I thought there were some good things early on in our game and we’re just … we’re playing a little bit fragile,” Hellebuyck said. “And there’s three zones and we have to care more about every single one of them, starting in our end. We can’t be giving up seven. I mean, it’s one of those nights. You can throw something at that but it’s just unacceptable if you want to win in this League.”

Eric Comrie made 21 saves in a mop up role.