Kirill Kaprizov extends point streak in Minnesota Wild's 4-3 win over Arizona Coyotes

Kirill Kaprizov's shot was en route to the net when the puck suddenly changed direction to fly through the crease.

What caused the swerve?

That would be Matt Boldy's skate, the Wild winger getting hit by Kaprizov's attempt while he was tangled up in front with Coyotes goaltender Connor Ingram.

"I felt it," Boldy said. "My defense was I think it would've been goalie interference anyway. That's what I'm going with."

This denied Kaprizov his second goal of the game, but he was even more productive after switching to playmaker.

The Wild phenom set up a pair of goals, including the decisive tally from Boldy, after opening the scoring in a 4-3 win against Arizona on Sunday afternoon in front of 17,745 at Xcel Energy Center that extended his point streak to a career-high nine games.

"He's the engine of our team," Marcus Foligno said. "When he's winning puck battles, guys just get lifted on the bench and compete more. If your best player is doing that every night, all the guys — myself included — are going to be lifted from it.

"It's who he is. He's a talented kid from Russia, but he's a guy that's gonna just be a superstar for a long, long time."

Kaprizov capped off his second three-point effort of the season 6 minutes, 33 seconds into the third period when he sent a pass across the slot to Boldy for a one-timer, the Wild's only power-play finish in three tries.

"Sometimes pass is better than goal," said Kaprizov, who leads the Wild in goals (13), assists (14) and points (27), and has scored more vs. the Coyotes (18 points in 12 games) than any other NHL opponent.

That was Kaprizov's ninth assist during an eight-game assist streak that is currently the longest in the NHL and tied for tops in team history with Jim Dowd in 2002. As for the nine-game point streak, which is tied for the third-best active run in the league, Kaprizov has 14 points in that span.

"Nothing specific. Just play my game," Kaprizov said in Russian through an interpreter. "Come to the rink prepared every single game, just play the way I know how to, not really think about a certain streak or to do anything special. Just play my game and let the rest of it kind of take care of itself."

The goal moved the Wild ahead 4-1, but Boldy's tally turned into the game-winner after Arizona's Lawson Crouse (16:42) and J.J. Moser (18:12) capitalized late in the third on shots from the middle.

Boldy is now on a career-high three-game goal streak after snapping an eight-game drought.

"You've got to be ready for it when he's got the puck," he said of Kaprizov's feed. "From my angle, I kind of saw a little bit of a seam. Obviously, I knew he saw it. Just got to be ready for it."

Despite only 11 forwards in the lineup and the Wild down to 10 for most of the second period after Foligno received a 10-minute misconduct following a fight with the Coyotes' Liam O'Brien, the Wild's offense didn't struggle with Kaprizov leading the way.

He buried a Joel Eriksson Ek pass at 8:08 of the first period for his third goal in as many games.

Then during 4-on-4 action in the second period, Kaprizov's backhander caromed into the crease where Sam Steel deposited the loose puck over Ingram's left pad at 4:01.

Arizona finally converted with 1:24 to go in the second, a shot from the inside by Nick Schmaltz, but Wild captain Jared Spurgeon reinstated a two-goal lead 36 seconds into the third period before Boldy converted on the power play.

The Coyotes blanked on their two chances, and Ingram totaled 24 saves. Marc-Andre Fleury had 20 stops for the Wild, who have five victories during Kaprizov's tear.

"What a great gift for our organization to have a guy like that, that is a superstar skill-wise, scoring-wise, but he works harder than anybody on the ice game in and game out, in practice, off the ice," Wild coach Dean Evason said. "He doesn't demand anything except an opportunity to give his team a chance to win, and he does that each and every night."