Last night the Wild opened the game with a sense of purpose that has been far too sporadic for much of the season. They won puck battles, supported the puck carrier, got shots through and on goal. They still managed to come out of the first period scoreless though.

The first period did end on a sour note as Mats Zuccarello took an awful tripping penalty in the offensive zone with 3 seconds to play in the period. Offensive zone penalties are a killer, combine that with the lack of situational awareness and they can be detrimental to the outcome of the contest.

Kevin Fiala got the Wild going in the second period with his 10th of the season shortly after the Wild had killed that Zuccarello minor. Fiala netted his second of the period with the Wild on the powerplay, at the 15:08 mark giving the Wild a 2-0 lead after two.

After Adam Boqvist floated one past Alex Stalock just over six minutes into the third, cutting the Wild lead in half, the Hawks had life. Chicago controlled much of the third period with the Wild on their heels. The eventual tying goal, from Olli Maata came with just over 3 minutes to play and the trend of giving away points late continued.

Matt Dumba who has been looking more like the player we have known him to be of late, jumped onto the ice and immediately into the play taking a nice feed from Zuccarello and took the puck to the net. A little puck luck later and the Wild were mobbing Dumba and celebrating the win.

Dumba's goal snapped a 33-game drought and could be just what he needed to get the monkey off his back. Dumba also assisted on Fiala's powerplay goal and now has five points in the last five games.

A much needed two points however giving one back to the Hawks in the process negates the forward progress. We have said it here many times but the three point games within the conference and more specifically in the Central Division do very little for the Wild who need to jump over teams just to get into playoff position.

Six points out of the playoffs with 30 games to play. Boudreau has his work cut out for him as he tries to pull the right strings to get his club to perform at a high level with greater consistency. That begins in net for the Wild where there have been only glimpses of that to this point. Alex Stalock has stepped up his game considerably however when he has been called on to shoulder the load over any lengthy stretch of games his level of compete has waned.

Bill Guerin has a totally different mission, one in which he is trying to craft a roster that can compete in today's NHL and more importantly set up for the Wild future. That future does not necessarily come with the guarantee that Boudreau will be behind the Wild bench past this season. There are a lot of factors at play and these are challenging times for the Wild brass.

Boudreau has one singular goal and that is win and get his team in the playoffs. Guerin has a cap to manage and the future of the organization in his hands to mold the winner that Wild owner, Craig Leipold, so desperately wants to deliver to the State of Hockey faithful.

An interesting dilemma the Wild find themselves in with two and a half weeks until the trade deadline.

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