Kirill Kaprizov held off scoresheet, but Wild stay hot with attention to detail

Just when the Wild seem to have found their calling card, they shuffle the deck.

A clutch offense led by Kirill Kaprizov has been the Wild’s M.O. for much of their early-season success, but on Sunday night at Xcel Energy Center, they flexed a different muscle: Despite Kaprizov going pointless, the Wild outlasted the Maple Leafs 2-1 in overtime because of the attention they paid to their own zone — a versatility that could keep the opposition guessing when it comes to figuring out the Wild.

“If you’re going to be a team that can win on a regular basis and continue to do that throughout the year, you have to find different ways to win games,” coach John Hynes said. “It can’t be a one-trick pony.”

After back-to-back comebacks spearheaded by Kaprizov, whose 21 points are in a three-way tie for the NHL lead, the Wild’s circumstances changed.

They blew an early lead, lost momentum on a Toronto power-play goal but recalibrated in time to come full circle and earn the outcome they seemed headed for from the beginning.

The catalyst?

An intermission chitchat between the second and third periods in which the team identified what needed to be fixed, in this case more cohesiveness between their forwards and defensemen to transition up ice with ease.

“They’re attentive,” Hynes said of the players. “They’re ready to execute, and I thought in the third period we played a much more connected game with our breakout structure.”

Matt Boldy’s breakaway in overtime sealed the victory, but the Wild’s detailed defending up until then paved the way for that play.

The Leafs had only five shots on net in the third, three scoring chances and only one high-danger look, according to Natural Stat Trick. Goaltender Filip Gustavsson improved to 6-1-1 with his 27-save effort, and in six of those eight games, he’s given up two goals or fewer.

“Our forwards are doing a great job of coming back and letting us stand up and making [the other team] chip or even if we don’t have that gap, they’re coming back and making them make plays before they want to,” captain Jared Spurgeon said. “It’s a big, big thing we worked on in camp, and the forwards are doing a great job making it easy on us.”

With Kaprizov on a jaw-dropping scoring pace — this was only his second pointless game of the season after Winnipeg denied him on Oct. 13 — and on the heels of two 5-3 victories, the Wild offense has received plenty of praise for the 8-1-2 record that has the Wild sitting third in the league with 18 points.

But the Wild limiting a talented Toronto lineup to one goal gave the goaltending and defense a turn in the spotlight. Overall, only two teams (Carolina and the New York Rangers) have allowed fewer goals than the 27 the Wild have surrendered.

“A lot of offense comes from our ‘D’ playing so well and having good gaps and breaking the puck out well,” Boldy said. “In our room, I think we give our ‘D’ a lot of credit, and they’ve been awesome.”

Tightening up defensively helped the Wild stretch their win streak to three games and gave them the chance to sweep their homestand on Tuesday vs. Los Angeles, but the strategy could mean more to the big picture.

The more unpredictable the Wild can be, the tougher they should be to match up against, and that’s what they’ll need to happen to make sure their surge isn’t temporary.

“Sometimes it could be a special-teams battle,” Hynes said. “Sometimes your top guys could do it. Other times, you have to play strong in a tight game and not waver. [Sunday night] was one of those examples.”