Connor Dewar paces Wild’s blowout win at Nashville with first NHL hat trick

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — In a role reversal typical of the way the Wild have played under new head coach John Hynes, it was Kirill Kaprizov digging a puck out of the boards on Thursday and firing a pass to Connor Dewar on a breakaway.

And like Kaprizov has done so many times in his professional career, Dewar, a hard-checking center on the Wild’s defensive line, buried it to give the Wild a 5-0, second-period lead and as the Wild dismantled a streaking Nashville Predators team, 6-1, at Bridgestone Arena.

Kaprizov had dug the puck from the boards before sending it forward to Dewar, the kind of play Dewar is accustomed to making.

“I saw Dewar alone and just passed to him because we had a long shift in our zone,” Kaprizov said. “I think he wanted to give me a pass back, and I yelled at him, ‘Hey, shoot! Shoot!’ ”

Dewar beat replacement goaltender Kevin Lankinen cleanly for his second goal and a 5-0 lead at 11:12 of the second frame.

“When Kirill tells you to shoot, you shoot,” said Dewar, who scored on a power play in the third period to complete his first NHL hat trick.

Kaprizov had a goal and assist, and Filip Gustavsson stopped 26 shots as the Wild won for the second time in as many games under new head coach John Hynes.

Jake Middleton and Pat Maroon also scored goals as Hynes beat the team that fired him after last season, and led Minnesota to just its 15th victory in 43 games at the Predators’ arena (15-22-7) since joining the NHL for the 2001-02 season.

The Wild beat the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday at Xcel Energy Center to end a seven-game losing streak that cost Dean Evason his job. Since then, they’re 2-0, have outscored opponents 9-2 and are a perfect 7 for 7 with a power kill that on Monday was the NHL’s worst with league-high 23 goals-against.

“It’s completely different teams, I would say — wouldn’t you think?” said Maroon, who Maroon deflected an Alex Goligoski slap shot to make it 4-0, and end the night for starting goaltender Juuse Saros, just 1:43 into the second period.

“We’re playing faster, we’re getting up in the play,” Maroon said. “We’re three-quarter icing them right now. We have good gaps, we’re back-pressuring, we’re closing in on them fast and we have fast transition right now. The fast you play like that, the faster you get on offense.”

The Wild put 31 shots on net after peppering St. Louis’ Jordan Binnington with 34 on Tuesday at the X.

Dewar’s second goal had to be demoralizing for the Predators, who finally got their forecheck going in the second period, only to be stymied by Gustavsson at every turn.

They finally got on the board when Juuso Parssinen deflected Ryan McDonaugh’s shot from the circle 2:37 into the third period to make it 5-1, seven minutes later, Dewar took a pass from Vinni Lettieri in the crease and powered it through Lankinen to make it 6-1.

It’s been a dramatic, if so far short, about face for the Wild, who before this week had lost 11 of 13 games. But Evason’s dismissal was a wake-up call, and Hynes’ growing changes to the system seem to be working for Minnesota.

The Wild were good against the Wild on Tuesday; they were great on Thursday.

“That’s what we talked with the group about, just trying to make sure that the last game was the standard that we want to set with the identity and the mindset — and and then, with the style that we talked about,” Hynes said.

The Wild came at Nashville in waves on Thursday.

“I think our D are much more active. I think we’re playing a faster game transitioning the puck up in our transition into the offensive zone,” Hynes said. “Our forwards are doing a really good job of tracking back, which allows us to have really tight gaps, and those were things we addressed again in practice, and tonight we did a good job again.”

Dewar scored a fourth goal on a power play with 3 minutes, 57 seconds remaining, but Nashville coach Andrew Brunette challenged for an offsides call and won. Asked if he was disappointed, Dewar deadpanned, “Yeah, it will haunt me forever.”

The Wild were scheduled for a day off Friday before returning to TRIA Rink on Saturday to prepare for a 1 p.m. puck drop against Chicago at the X.

“Maybe a bit of a wake-up call for us with the coaching change,” Dewar said. “We all want to buy in, and we know we’re a really good group in here. When we’re playing our game and playing free, we’re hard to beat.”