Kaprizov gets 100th point in Wild win against Kraken

ST. PAUL, Minn. --Kirill Kaprizov had a goal and three assists to eclipse 100 points on the season, and the Minnesota Wild defeated the Seattle Kraken 6-3 at Xcel Energy Center on Friday.

Kaprizov is the first player in Wild history to reach the milestone. He has 45 goals and 56 assists in 77 games.
"It's a huge accomplishment," Kaprizov said. "A huge thank you to the fans, my teammates, the organization. Obviously, it's a huge accomplishment, I'm extremely thankful and happy. Obviously, getting the team win was super important and made everything that much more sweet."
Kevin Fiala had a team-record five assists to extend his point streak to nine games, and Joel Eriksson Ek had two goals and an assist for Minnesota (50-21-7), which is 7-0-2 during a nine-game point streak and 16-1-3 in its past 20 games. Marc-Andre Fleury made 25 saves.
The Wild are two points ahead of the St. Louis Blues for second in the Central Division with four games remaining.
"There were a lot of different things that happened tonight as far as individual milestones and all that kind of stuff, but our group doesn't really care about that," Wild coach Dean Evason said. "We talked that they were, Kirill and Kevin, they were more excited when [Nicolas Deslauriers] scored than anything, right? That shows you the group is really tight and playing for the right reasons."

Matty Beniers scored for Seattle (26-45-6), which had won three straight. Philipp Grubauer made 29 saves.
"They're a good team," Beniers said. " I think a lot of their offense was self-inflicted. We kind of gave it to them. When you play a team like that, they're going to bury it and make you pay for it. That was a lot of the night."
Daniel Sprong gave the Kraken a 1-0 lead at 6:16 of the first period. Fleury's attempted pass to Jake Middleton behind the net was intercepted by Joonas Donskoi, who passed to Sprong in the slot for a shot into an open net.
Yanni Gourde extended the lead 2-0 at 10:20, passing back-and-forth with Karson Kuhlman on a 2-on-1 before scoring on a one-timer.
Eriksson Ek cut it to 2-1 at 16:01 when he finished a tic-tac-toe passing play with Kaprizov and Fiala on the power play.
Eriksson Ek then tied the game 2-2 at 2:04 of the second period. Fiala worked the play from right to left before sending a backdoor pass to Eriksson Ek for a one-timer.
"Getting the power-play goal, of course, helped us get back into the game," Eriksson Ek said. "Our start was slow. We didn't really make the best decisions, from us forwards jumping into the play, or from our defense pinching at the wrong times, but I think in the second we got going. We played better as a team and then stayed together and supported each other."
Kaprizov gave Minnesota its first lead of the night, 3-2, when he chipped in a pass from Fiala near the right post on the power play at 6:52.

Fiala's 50 assists are tied for the third-most in Wild history behind Kaprizov and Mats Zuccarello, who has 55 this season. Fiala is also one point shy of passing Marian Gaborik (83 in 2007-08) for the second-most in a season in team history.
"If you're a player and you think about the points stuff, the points are not coming," Fiala said. "… I just come here, have fun with the guys, try to play the game like in the present, you know, instinct, and everything settles."
Hartman extended the lead 4-2 at 10:22 of the second when he took a quick return pass from Kaprizov upon entering the Kraken zone and scored glove side from the right circle.
Zuccarello made it 5-2 with a power-play goal at 12:03, and Deslauriers pushed it to 6-2 at 14:29 off his own rebound in front.
Beniers got Seattle to within 6-3 at 5:16 of the third period with a power-play goal.
"The second period, they were a team that was playing for a playoff position and seeding, and they played for real," Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. "We played 20 minutes of shinny hockey. That's the bottom line.
"You can argue the first and third periods were OK, but it's a 60-minute tilt, it's a 60-minute game, and we weren't close to this team tonight. That's disappointing for us."
NOTES:Beniers has recorded a point in each of his first five NHL games (three goals, two assists). … Zuccarello left at 15:56 of the second period with a lower-body injury. Evason said it was not serious, but the forward will not travel for their game against the Nashville Predators on Sunday. ... Fiala has 21 points (nine goals, 12 assists) during his point streak. ... Wild forward Matt Boldy had an assist to extend his personal point streak to 10 games (three goals, 10 assists).