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First it was the once mighty Chicago Blackhawks falling by the blade of the Wild, now it's the turn of the once... well better than Minnesota at least, St Louis Blues who now look sure to also miss the playoffs.

Minnesota DESTROYED St Louis 8-3 on home ice to extend their season high win streak to 5 and pushing them closer to that magic playoff clinch spot. The Wild now find themselves in 3rd place in the Central Division and have a sizable buffer on the Blues who now slip even outside the wildcard places.

Everyone likes to bag poor Mike Yeo after the way it all ended in Minnesota, but those same people also forget that his St Louis team knocked the Wild out of the playoffs last season in a fairly dominant performance. I think he gets destroyed really unfairly online and just don't think its right.

But the story of the night was Eric Staal. Honestly, what a story it is too! The man's career was all but done after he went stale in Carolina. He couldn't find his mojo in Manhattan (like pretty much anyone that goes there to be fair) and essentially came to Minnesota to provide nothing but a bit of experience.

Who would have thought Staal would turn out to be the Wild's top goalscorer, on the team's top line, not to mention one of the hottest players in the entire league. Red hot!

Eric Staal continued his scoring streak, netting a hat trick against St Louis to catapult himself to 33 goals on the year. Boudreau even spoke about him possibly hitting 40 goals before the season is done, which is actually more than reachable right now. Crazy to think really.

In a hilarious turn of events, when Staal scored his 3rd goal, fans rained down their hats onto the ice as is tradition when a player scores a hat trick. The problem? Staal's 2nd goal was changed after closer inspection meant it was seen to be tipped by Granlund.

“It was one of those nights. It was fun. Our line was buzzing. We were feeling it.”

Let's just say that the scoring announcer in Excel Energy Center was too popular after he announced that it was in fact just his 2nd of the night.

Both Staal and Granlund were loving it though and the fans that threw their hats down prematurely will like to think that this inspiration spurred Staal onto scoring another. Yes, his actual hat trick goal this time. It wasn't a waste!

“It’s hard to explain. We just want to keep it. When we have that going, we want to bottle it and keep it going as long as we can.”

So do we Eric. So do we.

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Minnesota Wild | Steemit Beat Blog

Headlines, opinion, analysis and scores
from the Minnesota Wild.