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Pacioretty's natural hat trick leads Habs past Wild

Nov 20, 2013 - 3:36 AM Montreal, QC (SportsNetwork.com) - Max Pacioretty scored the first three goals of the game to notch his second career hat trick as Montreal Canadiens cruised to a 6-2 win over the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday.

Michael Bournival, Daniel Briere and Alex Galchenyuk also lit the lamp for the Canadiens, winners in two of their last three games.

Nino Niederreiter and Dany Heatley had one goal apiece for the Wild, who had won four straight entering the contest.

Pacioretty opened up the scoring just under three minutes into the second. David Desharnais centered a pass to a streaking Pacioretty, who was able pound the puck home.

Seven minutes later, Desharnais found Pacioretty for his second goal of the game before he capped his hat trick at the 13:36 mark for a commading 3-0 lead.

Bournvail's sixth goal of the season put the Habs ahead by four with 3:44 left in the middle session.

Briere lit the lamp 4:42 into the third before Niederreiter got the Wild on the board less than a minute later.

Galchenyik made it 6-1 with his goal at the 7:59 mark and Heatley scored with one second left to account for the final margin.

Game Notes

Pacioretty scored more goals on Tuesday than he had all season ... Montreal will visit the Washington Capitals on Friday ... Minnesota has not been shutout this season ... The Wild will visit the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday.