Wild Blog: Parise's Hat Trick Leads To Win; Showdown With Colorado Looms
It has been a rough stretch for Zach Parise.
The Minnesota Wild forward has only scored twice in his last 25 games with his last goal coming on March 10 against the Edmonton Oilers.
This slump left many Wild fans wondering what was wrong with Parise. Was he just struggling on the ice, as even elite players tend to do from time to time? Was Parise playing with an undisclosed injury? Or was time starting to catch up to him?
Well, for one night, Parise puts those questions to rest in a big way, scoring a hat trick in the first period as the Minnesota Wild beat the Calgary Flames 6-2.
Parise would get the first goal at 5:21 of the first period, beating former teammate and Calgary goaltender Niklas Backstrom on the short side to make it 1-0 Minnesota.
Parise's second goal would come just 45 seconds later at 6:07 of the first period, on a backhand shot that found it's way between Backstrom's pads and into the net, giving the Wild a 2-0 lead.
Parise's third goal of the night came on the power play at 16:33 in the first period as he tipped a Ryan Suter shot past Backstrom, giving Minnesota a 3-1 lead.
While Parise was relieved to break out of his scoring slump he was more focused after the game on how well the Wild played overall against Calgary than how he played.
"When you work hard and things aren't going well it's tough. It feels good when things finally shift the other way," Parise said. "Our power play was really good, we played a good five on five game. Calgary is a good offensive team and I thought we did a good job for the most part blocking shots and denying scoring chances."
Parise's teammates however were more than happy to see him finally break out of his slump.
"It's nice to see Parise get a few goals tonight," Wild goaltender Devan Dubnyk said. "Even when he's not scoring you still want him on the ice all the time. He's still effective, he works hard and creates a lot of chances, even if the pucks aren't going in for him."
With the win over Calgary, Minnesota now has 83 points on the season and occupies the final wild card spot in the Western Conference. Right behind them in the standings are the Colorado Avalanche with 80 points.
And wouldn't you know it, those two teams play each other this coming Saturday afternoon.
"It will be a big game on Saturday but it is only one game as we still have games we need to win afterwards," Dubnyk said when asked about the next game vs. Colorado. "The better position we can put ourselves in the better off it will be. We just have to take it one game at a time and that one is up next."
If Minnesota wins in regulation on Saturday, it will give the Wild a five point cushion over the Avalanche with two weeks to play in the season, making it very tough for Colorado to catch them in the standings for that final wild card spot.
An Avalanche win in regulation on Saturday puts Colorado one point behind the Wild in the standings with seven games left to play in the season, one more than Minnesota.
Needless to say this Saturday's game in Denver is the biggest game of the season for the Wild.
"We know the importance of that game," Parise said of the upcoming match up with Colorado. "Tonight's game doesn't impact what happens on Saturday. We didn't want to overlook Calgary and we did a good job of that. We just need to get a good practice in, regroup and get ready for Colorado."
