Last night the Wild jumped out early and blitzed the Hurricanes right from the start and Eric Staal netted his team leading 35th goal of the season on the powerplay 4 and half minutes into the 1st period. The once again took their foot off the gas and if not for some very good saves by Devan Dubnyk may have actually entered the locker room after one down a goal or possibly two instead they led by a goal.

The second period opened with a flurry of four goals in the first four minutes as Niederreiter, Parise, Winnik, and Staal all scored in a span of 3 minutes and 28 seconds to turn the game into a route.

Parise has now scored points in five straight and Niederreiter scored his first goal since since February 15th. Some great signs that the secondary scoring is starting to come after the new first line has dominated the scoresheet the past seven games.

Speaking of the top trio Staal-Granlund-Zucker have 16 goals and 19 assists in seven games since the three were put together.

There are 15 games remaining with 9 of those away from the Xcel Energy Center where the Wild have been dominant. The road however has been a totally different story and with 4 of the next 5 away from home the Wild look to get that road record closer to .500.

Winning on the road is important and the Wild will in likelihood be on the road to start the playoffs provided they can keep their current pace.

Two home wins over non-contenders is nothing to get overly excited about and the March record is only at .500 (2-2-0) so some serious work left to do for the Wild and it all begins on the road in Vancouver Friday and Edmonton on Saturday night.

Winning at this point in the season is no given, and the teams that are playoff ready when game 83 begins are the ones that have the best chance to win.

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