Coyotes defeat Wild 6-0 thanks to a hat-trick from Nick Bjugstad against the home squad.

Paul, Minnesota — — On Saturday night, the Arizona Coyotes defeated the Minnesota Wild 6-0. Nick Bjugstad recorded his second career hat trick, while Connor Ingram made 38 stops for his fifth shutout of the year.

The University of Minnesota player and native of Minneapolis, Bjugstad, ended a 16-game goal drought. He scored twice in the opening frame and his tenth goal of the year in the second to complete the hat trick.

“That first goal felt pretty fantastic, but it had been a long since I’d scored,” Bjugstad remarked. Sometimes, it just clicks with you. That night was this one. I am appreciative of my teammates. We had a lot of time in the offensive zone for an extended period of time, and chances to score normally follow shots.

Arizona also had goals from Alexander Kerfoot and two from Clayton Keller. In his 24 career games versus the Wild, Keller has 19 points and three goals in a row. All five games the Coyotes had lost were at home.

Moving forward Minnesota’s Kirill Kaprizov and goalie Filip Gustavsson made their way back from injury, but the Wild suffered their eighth defeat in nine games. They have dropped their last four games, outscored 21–5.

That’s why, following the game, the players had a long meeting behind closed doors before opening it to reporters.

“Losing like way at home is embarrassing,” remarked Mats Zuccarello, a forward. “I believe that every single male in this room feels exactly the same way. It simply isn’t up to par. Setting too simple of a goal. Despite our best efforts and opportunities, they are able to score far too easily. We’re not even close to being good enough.

Kaprizov, the team’s scoring leader with 34 points, missed seven games because of an upper-body injury and Gustavsson, the top netminder, missed seven games with a lower-body injury.

Gustavsson struggled in his return as did a defense still missing its top two defensemen in Jared Spurgeon and Jonas Brodin. Gustavsson allowed five goals on 18 shots before being pulled midway through the second period for Marc-Andre Fleury. Fleury stopped 14 of 15 shots faced.

“For my part, of course the timing’s a little off, the game is way quicker than in practice, and getting that timing right is hard,” Gustavsson said. “I tried my best; I wasn’t good enough today. That’s what happens.”

The Wild surged with 11 wins in 14 games after John Hynes replaced Dean Evason as head coach, but are 1-7-1 in their last nine games, while injuries have played a part.

On the first game of a three-game trip, Arizona jumped on Minnesota quickly. Kerfoot scored five minutes in and the Coyotes scored three times in the first period. Two of the goals were on the power play.

Andre Tourigny, the coach of Arizona, stated, “I think that’s the urgency we had.” “I believe the boys were thinking appropriately. That was a really strong beginning. I believe we played correctly after the first quarter. On defense, we were in a hurry. Defensively, we’re frugal. We played a strong three periods, I believe.

Arizona’s power play was 2 for 3. Thirty-ninth in the NHL and thirty-third at home, Minnesota’s penalty kill started the day.