Mats Zuccarello had a hat trick and Kirill Kaprizov netted his 18th goal of the season as the Minnesota Wild stayed hot with a 4-1 win over the Chicago Blackhawks Friday night in St. Paul.
The top line did all of the scoring, with Sam Steel collecting a pair of assists, combining for all four goals and assists for Minnesota. Zuccarello had one assist and Kaprizov had two assists on the night to go along with their goals.
Zuccarello took a feed from Kaprizov at 4:54 of the first period for a 1-0 lead and his power-play goal with 43 seconds left in the second period sandwiched Kaprizov’s goal and put the Wild up 3-0 going into the third.
Chicago great Jonathan Toews’ eight goal of the season cut the lead to 3-1, but that’s as close as the rebuilding ‘Hawks would get before Zuccarello completed the hat trick with an empty-net goal with 2:09 to go in the game.
Minnesota has won 10 of its last 13 games and is now 17-11-2, just three points behind second place Winnipeg (19-9-1) and five points back of first place Dallas (18-8-5).
Only the Penguins (11-1-1) and Toronto (10-1-2) have been better than the Wild since Nov. 19.
