from John Shipley of the PioneerPress,

There was a lot made of the fact that in early February, the Wild ranked 28th among the NHL’s 32 teams in even-strength goals. Well, guess what? They still do, yet even after a disappointing, 4-3 shootout loss to the Knights on Monday, the Wild are in position to win their first division title, and second ever, since 2007-08.

And that’s important. It’s been a while since Minnesota had a favorable first-round playoff matchup, and you’d better believe they’d rather play wild-card leaders Seattle or Winnipeg in the first round than Central rivals Colorado or Dallas, currently ahead of Minnesota by dint of more regulation wins.

“Yeah, it’s important,” said winger Matt Boldy, who scored his 13th goal in 12 games on Monday — and has 20 points in his past 15 games. “I think a lot of it just you’re trying to win every game. Obviously, the standings are important come playoff time, with your matchups and home ice and stuff like that, but we’re not going into any game thinking that it’s going to be an easy one, or anything like that.

“I think we have that mentality that rather than just going in and pushing to be first, we’re going in to win every game, and if (winning the division) is the outcome, then that’s the outcome.”

Only two points separate the Wild, Dallas and Colorado.

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