CHICAGO — Cam Talbot made 30 saves for his first shutout of the season and the Minnesota Wild beat the Chicago Blackhawks 5-0 Wednesday to extended the club's points streak to 10 games.
Mats Zuccarello, Kevin Fiala and Frederick Gaudreau each had a goal and an assist for surging Minnesota. The Wild head into the NHL’s All-Star break on a 9-0-1 roll.
Fiala extended his career-high points streak to 12 games, matching Mikael Granlund’s Wild record set in 2017, while Kirill Kaprizov scored his team-leading 19th goal to stretch his career-best points streak to eight games.
"It's very cool, to be honest," Fiala told NHL.com about earning at least a share of some franchise history. "But that's it, gotta keep going. t's very fun and we're winning it feels like all the time. It's the best thing; I can't describe the feeling. The confidence we have going into every game, no matter who we play, seriously it doesn't matter. We believe we will win."
Nico Sturm also connected to help Minnesota improve to 3-0-0 against fading Chicago.
Talbot now heads to play in the All-Star Game in Las Vegas this weekend fresh off a 30-save shutout. He was tested early, stonewalling Chicago long enough off for the Wild to find its offensive groove in the second period and then pull away.
"Shutouts are a team stat, but wins are what's most important," Talbot said. "It's fun to throw one of those up every once in a while, but I'll take the win more often than not."
The Wild enters the All-Star break in solid position in the Central Division of the Western Conference, sitting all alone in third place and just one point out of second. They play next on Tuesday, Feb. 8 in Winnipeg.
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