Kirill Kaprizov’s two late goals make certain Wild overcome Tampa Bay Lightning

Kirill Kaprizov scored a third-period goal that became the game-winner, and he put in another after that for comfort.

The Minnesota Star Tribune
November 2, 2024 at 2:48AM
Wild forward Kirill Kaprizov celebrates after scoring a goal over Tampa Bay goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy on Friday. (Ayrton Breckenridge/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

In a game of excess — from players to pucks — the Wild stayed on script to outlast the Lightning.

They prevailed 5-3 on Friday night at Xcel Energy Center to improve to 7-1-2 in their return home from winning five on the road.

“It was definitely far from perfect,” Brock Faber said, “but we’re thankful that we got the win.”

Kirill Kaprizov scored twice during a three-point effort, including a late tiebreaker that paved the way for two empty-netters — the first from Matt Boldy with 3 minutes, 3 seconds to go and the second courtesy Kaprizov.

In between, Tampa Bay’s Nick Paul responded with the goalie pulled at 17:34, but Kaprizov nixed that rally on his team-leading seventh goal with 29 seconds left.

“I feel good,” Kaprizov said. “I feel like when you won the games, you feel always good. Everyone in the locker room I think like this.”

Not only did Kaprizov push his multi-point game streak to seven games, a franchise record, but he became the first NHLer to hit the 20-point plateau this season and the first player in Wild history to meet that benchmark in 10 games.

Kaprizov, who was named the NHL’s Third Star for October after his torrid start, leads the NHL in scoring with 21 points.

Since 2000-01, he’s only the fifth player to reach 21 through his first 10 games, joining Mario Lemieux, Thomas Vanek, Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.

“He’s not a one-trick pony,” coach John Hynes said. “He’s obviously a point guy and a highly talented offensive player, but his commitment to play for the team and his commitment to do the things necessary when he doesn’t have the puck is what’s really impressive to me.”

This was the third straight game the Wild fell behind first, the Lightning capitalizing on the power play after the Wild were whistled for having too many men. With 45 seconds left in the first period, Brayden Point buried a rebound after Wild goalie Filip Gustavsson made a sprawling save against Victor Hedman.

That was Tampa Bay’s 15th shot of the period, while the disconnected Wild had just six — the group very much looking like a team that was recalibrating to home ice after seven consecutive road games.

“Some of those first periods when you get back from a long road trip can be a little flat, and it was for us,” Jake Middleton said. “But thankfully Gus was on his toes early.”

The Wild were better in the second and almost immediately.

Only 47 seconds into the period, Kaprizov set up Joel Eriksson Ek for a one-timer with a seeing-eye drop pass.

“I feel like I was 1-on-0, like breakaway almost,” Kaprizov said. “I just saw he was alone and just tried to pass to him. He was in great position for one-timer.”

Minutes later, the Lightning were issued their own too-many-men penalty, but the Wild blanked on that chance and their next to finish 0-for-2 to continue a rare drought for the power play; the Wild went 0-for-5 in the 5-3 victory at Pittsburgh on Tuesday.

In the aftermath of their first power play, the Wild did stuff another puck in the net by Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy (17 saves), with Marco Rossi converting on a wraparound. But the goal didn’t count since it was the second puck on the ice, a bizarre sequence that was later reviewed to show that Rossi scooped up an errant puck that was sitting behind the Tampa Bay net and not the live puck that both teams had been playing with previously.

“When the puck went in, I didn’t know what everyone was cheering about because I was following the real puck,” Hynes said.

This tie held through the rest of the period, with Gustavsson denying Nikita Kucherov in tight late in the second.

Gustavsson totaled 27 saves in a bounce-back performance after he was on the hook for six goals in the Wild 7-5 loss at Philadelphia last Saturday; the goaltender is 5-1-1.

Finally in the third period, the Wild surpassed the Lightning on a Faber shot from deep in the slot at 2:41.

Middleton handed off to Faber, an assist that extended Middleton’s career-long point streak to five games.

But the Wild and Tampa Bay were back to Square 1 by 6:23 when Jake Guentzel wired in a puck on the power play (2-for-4); this was the first time the Wild gave up multiple power-play goals, but losing the special teams battle wasn’t costly because of Kaprizov’s clutch play late.

At the side of the net, Rossi threw a loose puck into the crease, and the puck deflected off Kaprizov’s stick to break the 2-2 tie at 14:37.

The Wild have two more games in St. Paul before they get back on the road, and they kicked off this homestand at full strength.

Ryan Hartman suited up after missing five games with an upper-body injury.

“I had something similar to this last year,” said Hartman, who slotted on the fourth line next to Jakub Lauko and Marat Khusnutdinov. “I was able to kind of play through it. But this one was a little different with where I was and how it affected the way I could do things. So, it’s been kind of just waiting for it to feel good enough to go. So, it does.”

Hartman replaced Liam Ohgren in the lineup, with Ohgren getting sent to the minors after making the team out of training camp.

But Hynes expects the Wild to need Ohgren throughout the season. In the meantime, he can join Iowa in the American Hockey League and play more minutes and in more situations.

“Our thought process is to try to do what’s right for him now,” Hynes said, “but also for our team moving forward in the year.”

about the writer

Sarah McLellan

Minnesota Wild and NHL

Sarah McLellan covers the Wild and NHL. Before joining the Star Tribune in November 2017, she spent five years covering the Coyotes for The Arizona Republic.

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