ST. PAUL, Minn. _ Nashville coach Peter Laviolette said ahead of his team's rematch with the Wild on Friday that he was trying to forget the 6-4 blow-up loss the Predators last month at Xcel Energy Center.
"It was a very frustrating loss for us," he said. "But we're past that now."
Unfortunately for Nashville, the Wild were not.
In probably their best start of the season so far, the Wild took down the Central Division leaders, 4-2, at home in front of an announced crowd of 19,147. Nashville fell to 22-10-5 while the Wild climbed to 20-15-3.
Wild coach Bruce Boudreau said ahead of the game he just hoped his team would "come out with a lot of energy." While a four-goal burst in the third period granted the Wild their first victory against last season's Stanley Cup runner-up back on Nov. 16, this time around, the Wild upheld their coach's wishes Friday of upgrading its game.
"We realize it's a divisional game. We realize the differential in points," Boudreau said. "And if we want to stay with the big boys, we know how important it is for us."
The Wild outshot Nashville 11-0 to start the game before winger Mikael Granlund, who wound up with a hat trick, grabbed the breakthrough at seven minutes, 34 seconds. Nashville registered its first shot on goal, which goaltender Devan Dubnyk saved in his first game back from injury after missing seven, shortly after that.
Dubnyk ended the game with 41 saves.
"This is a big stretch," Dubnyk said pregame. "We got the right start against Dallas (on Wednesday), and we're going to have to keep doing that. We're not just looking at the wild-card spot. We want to get up in our Division, and the best way to do that is to beat the teams in your division. So it's a good opportunity for us here."
Dubnyk did let Nashville defenseman P.K. Subban's shot trickle past him at 10:16, but Granlund came to the rescue again, scoring his second at 11:09 on the power play.
The Wild ended up setting a season-high for shots on goal in a period, with the final tally 18-9. And the team didn't let up in the second period, either.
Center Eric Staal looked to have scored a deflection off defenseman Matt Dumba's shot less than a minute into the second 20 minutes, but Nashville challenged for goaltender interference on Pekka Rinne and won. Dumba made good on that, though, scoring a bomb at 13:14 to extend the Wild's lead.
Nashville center Kyle Turris pulled one back at 2:52 of the third period, scoring on the power play. But it wasn't enough to spur his team's comeback. While the Wild waned a bit toward the end, with Nashville ultimately winning the shot battle 43-38, both Granlund and defenseman Jared Spurgeon dented the post in attempts to solidify the lead late in the game.
Boudreau didn't actually see the end of the game, as he left the bench at the 5:44 mark after a puck hit him. He missed Granlund's hat trick, thanks to an empty-net goal with 50.3 seconds to play.
The Wild face Nashville again, this time at Bridgestone Arena, 7 p.m. Saturday in the finale of a back-to-back, home-and-home series.
"It's kind of silly to go here and then go home and play the same team again," Nashville winger Craig Smith said. "But I don't know, it's just how it winds up."
