Kirill Kaprizov's two late goals make certain Wild overcome Lightning

Sarah McLellan, The Minnesota Star Tribune on Nov 1, 2024

Published in Hockey

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ST. PAUL, Minn. — 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.

Kirill Kaprizov scored with 5 minutes, 24 seconds left in the third period, breaking a stalemate that lasted most of the action, before Matt Boldy hurled the puck into an empty net with 3:04 to go.

That became the game-winner after Tampa Bay’s Nicholas Paul responded 37 seconds after Boldy’s goal, but Kaprizov reinstated the Wild’s two-goal buffer with another empty-netter at 19:29 for his team-leading seventh goal.

Kaprizov, who was named the NHL’s Third Star for October, pushed his multi-point game streak to seven games, a franchise record. His 21 points lead the league.

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 a disconnected Wild had just six — the group very much looking like a team that was recalibrating to home ice after seven consecutive road games.

But 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.

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.

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

Gustavsson totaled 28 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 Brock Faber shot from deep in the slot at 2:41.

Jake 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.

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 coach John 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.”