Wild have one of the NHL’s best records thanks to road success

ANAHEIM, CALIF. – Considering their battle scars, playing 10 of the first 15 games on the road could have rattled the Wild.

After all, the beginning of last season was a chicken or egg debate with their road record: Did the Wild struggle early because they were bad on the road? Or were they bad on the road because they struggled early?

Either way, it’s a moot point now, especially since history isn’t repeating itself.

The Wild lead the NHL in road victories with seven, and the 15 points they’ve collected as the visitor are also first.

They’ll go for a sweep of their current trip on Sunday at Chicago after back-to-back wins at San Jose and Anaheim but regardless of what happens next, they’ve already avoided another terrible start because of how effective they’ve been as the away team.

“We’d like to be undefeated,” alternate captain Marcus Foligno said, “but it’s gone really well.”

That’s for sure: The Wild climbed to second in the NHL after they edged the Ducks 5-2 on Friday night.

That was only temporary, as Florida moved back a point ahead of them Saturday. At the top is Central Division rival Winnipeg at 14-1. But the Wild wouldn’t be 10-2-2 overall without their 7-1-1 showing on the road.

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.

Not only are the Wild’s 37 road goals first in the league, but they have the best road scorer.

Of Kirill Kaprizov’s NHL-high 27 points, 20 have come away from Xcel Energy Center. The winger’s eight-game multipoint streak is tied for the longest among active NHLers, and the last player with a longer run on the road was Wayne Gretzky at nine games in 1990-91.

But the Wild have been solid in their own end, too.

Their 2.33 goals-against average ranks sixth, and goaltenders Filip Gustavsson and Marc-Andre Fleury have combined for a .916 save percentage.

“We’ve took it a game at a time honestly,” center Frederick Gaudreau said. “That’s our mindset. I think you do that, you get good results, and then you kind of get addicted to that feeling of just going at it every single day and not focusing too far and … everybody’s buying into the team system and there’s no selfishness in there.

“Everybody’s doing it for the team and to go out there and work for a big win all together one day at a time.”

Eventually, the schedule will balance out and how the Wild are performing at home will become more important.

The significance of those future games in St. Paul, though, depended on the Wild getting through this first test on the road, and they passed with flying colors — so much so that there’s a new question at hand: Are the Wild thriving because they’re good on the road? Or are they good on the road because they’re thriving?

“The first 10 to 20 games, there’s lots to build on,” Hynes said. “But if you can get off to a good start, it gives you a strong foundation in your game, in your team’s confidence level, and then I think it also helps you springboard as you move forward through the season.

“So, we’ve been able to accomplish that thus far, but we got to finish the job as well.”