3/24: Wild Rout Calgary Flames 6-2

The Minnesota Wild beat the Calgary Flames 6-2 on Thursday night. Zach Parise scored a hat trick in the first period with former Wild goaltender Niklas Backstrom, the winningest netminder in team history, between the pipes.

“It’s something special in this league and to do it in one period is pretty crazy,” defenseman Jared Spurgeon, who scored two power play goals, told the Star Tribune. “You can tell from the first shift he was going and the team followed, that’s for sure.”

Parise had two goals in the past 25 games. He matched that total in 46 seconds and scored the fastest three goals by an individual player in Wild history (11 minutes and 12 seconds). It was his league-leading third hat trick of the season.

“I just see him battle, battle, battle, and those are the things that are coming now,” interim coach John Torchetti told the Pioneer Press. “I’ve seen it the last for our five games, and he didn’t get rewarded for it, but it all equals out.”

It made for an awkward video tribute to Backstrom, who received a standing ovation, because by the time the tribute was playing, he had already been scored on twice.

“Yeah, for sure it was weird, but you can’t hide behind that,” Backstrom told the Pioneer Press. “I’m glad that it’s over.”

Parise assisted on one of Spurgeon’s two power play goals, and thought he should have had an assist on the other — a backdoor pass that was ruled unassisted because it was first stopped by Calgary defenseman Mark Giordano.

“Our scorers are sleeping sometimes,” Parise told the Star Tribune. “I’ve never seen a home rink that it’s tougher to get points in than ours, seriously.”

Nino Niederreiter added the sixth goal for Minnesota. Johnny Gaudreau and Jakub Nakladal scored for Calgary.

The Colorado Avalanche blew a 2-1 lead to the Philadelphia Flyers in the third period Thursday night, giving the Wild a three-point lead over the Avs for the final playoff spot heading into a matchup between the two teams Saturday in Denver.

“We always have good games with those guys,” Parise told the Star Tribune. “They’re exciting, tough games, so I wouldn’t expect this to be any different with everything that’s on the line.”

[Star Tribune, Pioneer Press]

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