Kirill Kaprizov, Alex Ovechkin both make history facing each other for first time

WASHINGTON — Hours after he became the Wild's franchise leader for points in a season, Kirill Kaprizov accomplished another first in his NHL career: playing against Alex Ovechkin.

Kaprizov was sidelined with injury the last time the Wild and Capitals faced off this season, at Xcel Energy Center on Jan. 8, but he was in the spotlight on Sunday at Capital One Arena for the rematch.

The previous night, Kaprizov broke Marian Gaborik's single-season team scoring record by tallying a goal and assist in the Wild's 3-1 win over the Hurricanes to reach 85 points — two more than Gaborik had in 2007-08. Gaborik recorded his final point that season on April 3, 2008, with Kaprizov eclipsing his total one day shy of 14 years exactly.

"It's of course exciting to play against Ovi, but I have a lot of other friends on the team, too," said Kaprizov through a translator, mentioning fellow Russians Dmitry Orlov, Ilya Samsonov and Evgeny Kuznetsov.

And while Kaprizov has revised the Wild record book, Ovechkin is chasing a different milestone. The superstar has passed Marcel Dionne, Brett Hull and Jaromir Jagr this season as he climbs the NHL's all-time goals list. Ovechkin is in third place, trailing only Gordie Howe and Wayne Gretzky, who holds the record at 894.

"I'm extremely happy for him," said Kaprizov, who has played with Ovechkin in international competition. "I'm excited for him. I'm happy that he's pursuing that. I believe it's just a matter of time before he actually breaks the record and gets the record, and I think it's going to be good for the game and for all of hockey as a whole for him to do that."

That Mats Zuccarello factored into Kaprizov's record-breaking points was no surprise.

Since they began playing together last season, the pair's bond has been a key ingredient for the Wild, and it was on display Saturday during Kaprizov's memorable showing; He set up Zuccarello for a goal that sealed his 84th point before Kaprizov scored off a Zuccarello assist for No. 85.

"He's an exceptional player and a really dear friend," Kaprizov said recently. "We spend a lot of time with each other on and off the ice, always learning and always trying to get better, trying to analyze different plays so we can get better. The chemistry's been great, and I hope it continues."

Marc-Andre Fleury became the first goalie in Wild history to win his first three games after his performance Saturday, a 37-save effort that once again resulted in a bouquet of flowers hitting the ice in nod to Fleury's "Flower" nickname.

This season, only two netminders have had longer win streaks in their team debuts: Carolina's Frederik Andersen (eight) and St. Louis' Charlie Lindgren (five).

Not until 6 minutes, 19 seconds remained in the third period did the Hurricanes finally score against Fleury, off a redirect, and although Carolina did get one more puck behind Fleury in the last minute of play, the goal was waved off because of goalie interference from former Wild forward Nino Niederreiter.

Earlier in the second period, the 37-year-old goaltender had one of the better sequences in his Wild tenure, a stretch in which Fleury rattled off a series of impressive saves including a sliding stop off the rush vs. Martin Necas.

"When you have a lot of shots, you don't think, right?" Fleury said. "You just play."