In St Paul, the Wild’s Mats Zuccarello hit for a hat trick on Friday night i a 41 win over the Chicago Blackhawks. 
“The guys are committed,” Wild coach Dean Evason said. “… I think we’ve got to the point here, and obviously we’re just going to have to keep teaching and reminding this is how we play. This is how the Minnesota Wild play. We play stingy, we play hard, we make it difficult to play against and then we’ll get our opportunities and when we do, we’ll hopefully capitalize as we have here as of late.”
Zuccarello started the scoring when he tipped in a shot pass from Kirill Kaprizov at the right post.
Kaprizov and Zuccarello combined on the Wild’s second goal for a 2-0 lead in the second period.
“[Zuccarello and Kaprizov] were really good tonight,” Chicago coach Luke Richardson said. “We didn’t kill plays in our D-zone early, and that just fuels their game and they really get moving in there.”
Marc-Andre Fleury made 28 saves in the Minnesota win.
The Wild improved to 17-11-2.
Johnathan Toews was the lone striker for the Blackhawks, his goal came in the third period to cut the Wild advantage to 3-1.
Chicago dropped to 7-18-4.
“No one wants to lose,” Blackhawks forward Max Domi said. “We certainly don’t. It’s not fun, and we got to stick together because that’s the only way we’re going to get out of this. I thought we showed glimpses of that tonight.
“Guys are getting sick and tired of losing, so we just got to find a way to push back now.”
Zuccarello pushed the lead to 3-0 late in the middle frame with his second marker, off the power play.
Toews hit for a power play goal at 8:27.
Chicago is 1-13-1 in their last 15 games.
Zuccarello completed his hat trick with 23:09 left in the third, he scored into an empty net for the 4-1 final.
“You go through a season and go through surges where not everything is clicking and you feel like you don’t get the bounces,” Zuccarello said. “And then you end up with an extended time where everyone feels good, and confidence is up, and the puck bounces your way and the passes that you make and the plays that you make are there and goes through. I think confidence level when you win games is important.”
Petr Mrazek made 18 saves in the Chicago loss.
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