What’s behind their success?
How they’ve started games, another about-face from last season.
No one has scored more in the first period as the visitor than the Wild, who have capitalized 12 times. They blitzed Anaheim for three on Friday, this after the Ducks had given only seven first-period goals all season.
In all but two of their road games, the Wild have opened the scoring. They’re 6-0-1 when that happens, and the Wild are undefeated (6-0) when they lead after the first and second periods.
“We’ve been focused to start games, and that’s a big part of it,” coach John Hynes said. “It’s not so much, rah-rah, getting ready, but I think the preparation, the mental preparation, our team preparation, to be able to come out and understand what we need to do, and then the guys do a good job of going out and executing it.”
The offense has certainly set the tone.
