Zuccarello scored his 15th goal of the season and provided his 33rd assist, but to no avail.
– We weren’t sharp today. We didn’t play our game,” complained Wild coach Dave Evason.
Joel Eriksson Eik gave the Wild the lead, but Mark Scheifele shattered the scoring dream by scoring the game’s next three goals.
Scheifele equalized around midway through the middle period, before scoring the opening goal in extra time 12 seconds before the final break. He completed his hat trick early in the third period. He believes a short holiday has helped his goalscoring form.
– I took a trip down south and sunbathed, played golf and hung out with friends. It refreshed me, he said.
Cole Perfetti added to make it 4-1 before Zuccarello created excitement. He received a cross pass from Kirill Kaprizov, controlled the puck and scored with a wrist shot at the near post.
Kyle Connor added for the Jets before Zuccarello registered the assist on Dmitrij Kulikov’s goal. He set up Kaprizov for a shot and Kulikov kicked the keeper’s rebound.
Paul Stastny scored 6-3 with an empty net goal. It was the Wild’s only consecutive goal where Zuccarello was on the ice. The Norwegian played 17.40 minutes and got plus 1 in his part of the match.
There were 12,527 spectators after crowd restrictions were lifted in Canada this week. That’s 3,000 less than a full house. Binders are still prohibited in the stands.
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