Kaprizov hat trick helps Wild defeat Hurricanes
Gustavsson makes 40 saves for Minnesota, which has won 3 of 4
By
Kurt Dusterberg
NHL.com Independent Correspondent
Kaprizov has five goals in his past two games.
“Of course, when you score more goals, it’s easy to win," Kaprizov said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s me or other guys [who] score goals too. It’s easy for us to play like this.”
Joel Eriksson Ek scored the go-ahead goal in the third period and had two assists, and Filip Gustavsson made 40 saves for the Wild (20-21-5), who have won three of their past four games, including a 6-4 win against the Florida Panthers on Friday.
“It wasn’t perfect. You never play a perfect game,” Minnesota coach John Hynes said. “I think there’s lots of elements in the last two games that we want to see that give us a chance to win every night.”.
Martin Necas and Michael Bunting scored for the Hurricanes (25-15-5), who have lost two of their past three. Antti Raanta made 14 saves.
“It’s a frustrating game when you lose like that,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “The first period was as good as you could do it. We needed to get more out of it. That’s how it goes sometimes.”
Necas scored on a wrist shot from the left face-off circle to make it 1-0 at 14:02 of the first period. After Dmitry Orlov held in a Minnesota clearing attempt at the blue line, Stefan Noesen passed to Necas to set up the goal.
Kaprizov tipped Alex Goligoski’s shot from the left point to tie the game 1-1 at 17:43.
The goal came on Minnesota’s second shot of the game. The Wild were outshot 18-3 in the first period.
“That big tip got us going, [gave us] a little belief, and that was huge going into the second with a 1-1 game,” Minnesota forward Marcus Foligno said. “He’s playing great, and we have to start thinking about [taking] care of the defensive side and not just hope Kirill is going to get his looks.”
Kaprizov spun to his forehand in the slot and scored on a wrist shot through traffic to give Minnesota a 2-1 lead at 6:18 of the second period.
“I just tried shooting. Sometimes we have chances and don’t shoot on the net,” Kaprizov said. “I feel like Carolina always plays a pretty tight game and doesn’t give [a lot] of shots."
Bunting tied it at 2-2 with a short-side wrist shot from the left circle at 8:17 of the third period.
“We weren’t great in the third, and then we tie it up,” Brind’Amour said. “We had a couple mental errors and they made you pay. Good for them, they did what they needed to do. We didn’t execute.”
Eriksson Ek scored on his own rebound after a centering pass from Jonas Brodin for a 3-2 lead at 9:32.
Kaprizov scored an empty-net goal at 17:59 to make it 4-2, after Brock Faber blocked a shot by Brent Burns.
“We’re realizing what we need at this time of the year,” Foligno said. “All our star guys were getting down and bending one knee when Burns and those guys were shooting. It’s huge. It fires everyone up. It’s just winning hockey.”
Jake Middleton scored into the empty net at 19:04 for the 5-2 final.
“They were selling out blocking shots, and their goalie played an unreal game,” Hurricanes forward Sebastian Aho said. “Our third period wasn’t good enough, but other than that, I thought the way we played was really good. We just couldn’t finish.”
NOTES: Kaprizov (five goals, three assists), Eriksson Ek (four goals, four assists) and Faber (one goal, five assists) each extended his point streak to four games. … Minnesota had a season-low 19 shots on goal. … Bunting and defenseman Brady Skjei each had a season-high six shots. … Hurricanes forward Andrei Svechnikov missed the game with a lower-body injury.
