If the Wild were curious what it was like to play them on the road, the Canucks showed them.
Kirill Kaprizov scores in overtime to send NHL-best Wild past Canucks 3-2
The Wild extended their winning streak to four games, matching their season high.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
December 4, 2024 at 3:34PM
Led by strong goaltending, a reputable defense and timely scoring — sound familiar? — Vancouver is also one of the NHL’s most ungracious visitors and remained a handful on Tuesday night to almost spoil the Wild’s homestand finale.
Instead, the Wild overcame their doppelgänger 3-2 in overtime at Xcel Energy Center and extend their win streak to four games, which matches their season high. At 17-4-4 and with 38 points after a 3-0 homestand, the Wild are still first in the NHL.
“Really good test,” Frederick Gaudreau said. “They’re skilled, but they play a strong structure, too. To be able to win on the road says a lot about a team, so we knew we were in for a big game.”
Kirill Kaprizov split a 2-2 tie with 24 seconds to go in 3-on-3 action during a marathon 1 minute, 45 second shift, burying a 2-on-1 pass from Marco Rossi after Burnsville’s Brock Boeser hit the post during a 2-on-0 chance for the Canucks.
“A little tired,” Kaprizov said with a laugh.
This was Kaprizov’s team-leading 16th goal, franchise-best ninth overtime game-winner and league-high 39th point.
The 10 game-winning goals he’s factored in this season (four goals and six assists) are the most in the NHL.
“Both teams could have won,” said Kaprizov, whose first OT shift was a breezy 1:18. “I feel we played pretty good and have a lot of chances and Vancouver have, too. But we won.”
Filip Gustavsson had 30 stops for the Wild, while the Wild issued Vancouver’s Kevin Lankinen his first road loss of the season after Lankinen, who made 26 saves, arrived on a 10-0 run.
Gustavsson’s first of two saves in overtime came against fellow Sweden native Erik Brannstrom, who dined with Gustavsson on Monday.
“He wanted me to let one in,” said Gustavsson, who improved to 12-4-3 with a league-leading 2.04 goals-against average and .929 save percentage, “and I just said, ‘No.’”
Like the Wild tend to do when they’re the away team, the Canucks capitalized first, taking advantage of a power play on a Quinn Hughes shot through traffic set up by Elias Pettersson at 8:37 of the first period.
Vancouver finished 1-for-3, while the Wild’s power play blanked on its only opportunity for a total of four penalties despite an edgy, contentious battle between the two sides.
“They were cross-checking everybody,” Jake Middleton said. “So, it was frustrating. Fortunately, it was prison rules both ways for a bit and we got away with it, too.”
Not until the second period did the Wild finally answer back on a Gaudreau goal off the rush at 7:56.
The goal was Gaudreau’s fifth, which matches his output from last season, and his 14 points are one more than he had.
But the Canucks, whose 10 road wins are tied with the Wild for second, exited the period ahead when Jake DeBrusk pounced on a Pettersson rebound with 42 seconds left.
“Nobody panicked,” Gaudreau said. “We felt good about our game for the first two periods. Sometimes the scoreboard is not really how you feel about the game. We felt like we played better than the scoreboard indicated.”
After an intermission to regroup, the Wild quickly reset on a shot from the middle by Middleton just 1:43 into the third.
“I wasn’t connecting on many passes,” Middleton said. “So, I figured I’d shoot.”
The rest of the period remained hard-hitting and tight checking with both teams in lockstep until overtime.
“A lot of the structure was very similar to us,” Middleton said. “There was not much ice out there.”
In overtime, Joel Eriksson Ek was denied twice, first on an opening-minute breakaway and then on a backhander. But Eriksson Ek, who was cross-checked earlier in the game, never played after that, with coach John Hynes saying Eriksson Ek got “banged up” in overtime.
Already, the Wild are down Jakub Lauko and Jonas Brodin, who were moved to injured reserve before the game while Mats Zuccarello was shifted to long-term injured reserve.
Lauko (lower-body injury) skated Tuesday morning and is the closest to returning. Brodin (upper-body injury) was still seeing doctors and being evaluated.
Zuccarello went on long-term injured reserve to give the Wild enough salary-cap space to bring up Liam Ohgren from the minors.
Although Ohgren didn’t play, the Wild might have needed him and didn’t have any other extra forwards available.
Jesper Wallstedt was also recalled but only as a paper move to give the team better flexibility while they have additional salary cap available due to Zuccarello’s designation on long-term injured reserve. Zuccarello, who hasn’t played since getting hit by a shot on Nov. 14, has begun doing light activity off the ice.
But despite missing key players, the Wild keep prevailing, even when they’re faced with a test as challenging as the one they present.
“We got tougher and we got harder as the game continued to go on,” Hynes said. “That was a big reason why we find a way to win the game.”
The Wild extended their winning streak to four games, matching their season high.
