Wild keep rolling by sinking the Toronto Maple Leafs 2-1 in overtime

The Maple Leafs shut down Kirill Kaprizov but not the Wild.

They won 2-1 in overtime on Sunday night at Xcel Energy Center for their third straight victory and first of the season without Kaprizov creating any offense.

“It shows we can win these tight games, too,” goaltender Filip Gustavsson said.

A speedy backcheck by captain Jared Spurgeon foiled a potential Toronto breakaway and sent the Wild the other way on a 2-on-0 rush, with Marco Rossi handing off to Matt Boldy for the top-shelf game-winner at 2 minutes, 14 seconds of overtime.

“Had a couple breakaways and shot and none of them have gone in, so I thought I’d change it up a little,” said Boldy, who has three career overtime goals. “Just made a move and trusted it.”

At 8-1-2, the Wild’s 18 points are tied with the 2002-03 and 2006-07 seasons for their most through 11 games.

Their 41 goals at the 11-game mark are a franchise record, but this victory was more indicative of the Wild’s perseverance on defense.

After a Ryan Hartman deflection caromed off a Leafs stick before flying into the Toronto net at 10:19 of the first period, a goal that was confirmed legal by video review, the Wild began to fade on a Leafs power play (1-for-2) that William Nylander capitalized on with 52 seconds left in the first.

During the second period, the Wild continued to stray from their strong start, the offense and defense not being on the same page preventing the team from capitalizing against a Toronto lineup that had played the previous night.

In the waning minutes, they received a four-minute power play after the Leafs’ Oliver Ekman-Larsson was penalized for cross-checking and roughing. But the Wild whiffed on the extended look, going 0-for-3 overall and 0-for-10 through their past three games.

“Sometimes if you don’t have success with scoring [on] the power play, it can bleed into the power-play players’ frustration or your team,” coach John Hynes said. “Right now, we just go out and play.”

After a second intermission reset, the Wild gelled 5-on-5 in the third, outshooting the Leafs 11-5.

“We didn’t love our second,” Hartman said. “A little bit disconnected between the forwards and ‘D.’ Started to force things into areas where it was hard for us to get it. So, [we] talked about it between periods and addressed it, and we were really way more connected in the third and we spent a lot of time in the O-zone.”

That pressure didn’t pay off until overtime, when Spurgeon factored into his second goal after also assisting on Hartman’s tally, but the Wild were deserving of the result.

“You just take what the game gives you,” Spurgeon said. “Gus made some huge saves for us in the second there. We got away from it and gave them momentum, but we were able to get back to it in the third there and play the game we want to.”

The Wild had just four faceoffs in their own zone in the third and none for almost 14 minutes. Toronto tested Gustavsson just three times during the last 8:21.

“We did not generate much at all but were still able to lock it down defensively when we don’t have it in the offensive zone,” said Jake Middleton, who welcomed a daughter, Stevie, with his wife, Natalie, on Saturday night. “We can win those 2-1 games.”

Gustavsson finished with 27 saves while improving to 6-1-1, while Anthony Stolarz made 31 stops for the Leafs.

This was the sixth time Gustavsson has allowed two goals or fewer, which is tied with Anaheim’s Lukas Dostal for tops in the NHL. Among goalies who have played at least six games, Gustavsson is second in goals-against average (2.12) and third in save percentage (.924).

As for Kaprizov, this was only the second game he didn’t pick up at least a point.

His franchise-record multipoint game streak ended at seven games, and his 21 points are in a three-way tie with Colorado’s Cale Makar and Florida’s Sam Reinhart for the league lead.

But a quiet performance by him didn’t doom the Wild, not when the team made the necessary in-game adjustments to keep their win streak going.

“I really liked our third period,” Hynes said, “but probably more importantly I liked the fact that we can analyze what’s going on in the game and the players have the mindset to go back out, refocus and do what needs to be done.”