Wild score 5 on power play, hold off Panthers
Fleury leaves with upper-body injury; Reinhart goal streak ends at 8 for Florida
By
George Richards
NHL.com Independent Correspondent
Kirill Kaprizov had two goals and an assist, Brock Faber had a goal and two assists, and Ryan Hartman scored twice for the Wild (19-21-5), who went 5-for-6 with the man-advantage after losing five of six (1-4-1), including 7-3 at the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday.
“I thought our competitive level was where it needed to be; I thought we played a smarter game than we did last night,” Minnesota coach John Hynes said. “The resiliency of the group; it was a big, heavy, hard, physical game with a lot of adversity. … But I really liked the intensity level that we played with, combined with the focus level.’’
Marc-Andre Fleury made 10 saves before leaving in the second period because of an upper-body injury. Hynes did not have an update, other than that Fleury “felt well” after colliding with Florida forward William Lockwood behind the net 2:15 into the first period.
Fleury left after the Wild took a 4-1 lead, and Filip Gustavsson made 21 saves in relief.
Aaron Ekblad had a goal and three assists, and Sam Reinhart’s eight-game goal streak ended for the Panthers (27-14-4), who have lost four in a row (0-2-2) since a nine-game winning streak. Sergei Bobrovsky was pulled after allowing four goals on 15 shots, and Anthony Stolarz made nine saves.
“We tried to come back, just fell short today,” Ekblad said. “Obviously we took a lot of penalties and that is tough, getting behind in a game like that against a good team. It’s never easy. Our PK has been a strong suit for us, but they did a good job.”
Kaprizov gave Minnesota a 1-0 lead on a power play at 2:49 of the first period, redirecting Matt Boldy’s feed past Bobrovsky for his first goal in five games.
Ekblad tied it 1-1 just 35 seconds into the second when his wrist shot from the right circle hit Fleury and trickled over the goal line.
Hartman put the Wild back in front 2-1 at 3:22 with a one-timer that found its way through traffic for another power-play goal.
Minnesota scored its third with the man-advantage at 7:36 when a slap shot by Faber found its way through traffic to make it 3-1.
Mats Zuccarello gave the Wild a 4-1 lead with another power-play goal, scoring on a wrist shot from beyond the right circle at 10:32.
Bobrovsky and Fleury each left the game after the goal.
“The ‘next-man-up’ mentality has always been big for this group, and we have been facing adversity all year,” Minnesota forward Brandon Duhaime said. “So, nothing changed for us. A lot of guys contributed. The biggest thing for us is consistency. We have to carry this momentum.”
Eetu Luostarinen cut it to 4-2 at 18:27, jamming a loose puck past Gustavsson during a scramble in front.
But Kaprizov scored the Wild’s fifth power-play goal 41 seconds into the third period when he one-timed Zuccarello’s feed past Stolarz to make it 5-2.
Anton Lundell cut it to 5-3 for Florida on a rebound at 8:05, and Gustav Forsling made it 5-4 just 18 seconds later with a slap shot at 8:23.
The Panthers continued to push and had 19 shots on goal in the third, but Hartman scored an empty-net goal at 19:48 for the 6-4 final.
“The things we are real good at, we were not and it starts with face-offs and clears,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “We were behind it. Their first goal was a nice play, but the others were just pucks to the net. We’ve got to get some blocks. [The penalty kill] won us a whole lot of game for us this year, but it wasn’t very good tonight.”
NOTES: Wild forward Connor Dewar left at 5:09 of the second with a lower-body injury. Hynes did not have an update. … Kaprizov has 15 points (seven goals, eight assists) in his past 10 games. … Faber, a rookie defenseman, had his first three-point game in the NHL. … Florida had allowed five power-play goals in a game three times previously -- twice during the 2005-06 season and on Oct. 23, 2006, against the Atlanta Thrashers. Entering Friday, it had not given up more than one power-play goal in 19 games (Dec. 6 against the Dallas Stars). … Lockwood left the game following a fight with Duhaime at 5:58 of the first. Maurice did not have an update. … Reinhart extended his point streak to nine games (13 points; 10 goals, three assists) with an assist on Lundell’s goal. … Ekblad and Forsling were each plus-4. ... Forward Matthew Tkachuk became the fastest in Panthers history to get 100 assists, doing so in 124 games. Reinhart and Keith Yandle did it in 185.
