Jason Zucker of the Wild was named the NHL's First Star after a week where he scored six consecutive goals -- one fewer than the NHL record -- over three games. He had his first career hat trick in a 3-0 victory over Montreal on Thursday and scored the only goal in Saturday's 1-0 victory in Philadelphia.
Feature on Zucker set for tomorrow's paper.
With his heroics, goalie Devan Dubnyk might be getting a little overshadowed.
But the Wild goaltender has back-to-back shutouts and a hasn't been scored on in 136 minutes and 20 seconds.
"The last two game, he's been very good, and we just keep our fingers crossed that he gets on that run that he gets on, that run that he got last year or the year before," coach Bruce Boudreau said. "He's proven that when he's on top of his game, he's one of the best goalies in the world."
Dubnyk has started the past six-consecutive games with backup Alex Stalock having to fly home ahead of his would-be start at Toronto this past Wednesday for the birth of his second child. Dubnyk is now in a four-way tie for first in the league for shutouts and has a 6-6-1 record for 402 saves. He has a .920 save percentage and 2.55 goals against average.
The Wild face Philadelphia again 7 p.m. Tuesday at Xcel Energy Center after beating the Flyers 1-0 on the road Saturday. Boudreau said now that his team has won the first game of the home-and-home series, the Wild have a bit of control over the Eastern conference foe.
"You've got to play them twice, sometimes it's the luck of the draw," Boudreau said. "You get teams when they're going good or you get teams when they're going bad. Philadelphia is a good team. They're pretty deep. I just thought they were a really good team."
The only player missing from practice (besides the long-term injured Charlie Coyle and Zach Parise) Monday at Xcel was fourth-line winger Chris Stewart. Here were the lines:
Nino Niederreiter, Eric Staal, Jason Zucker
Tyler Ennis, Mikko Koivu, Mikael Granlund
Daniel Winnik, Joel Eriksson Ek, Luke Kunin
Marcus Foligno, Matt Cullen
