Anyone who has really been paying attention to the Wild this season knows that Kirill Kaprizov has been playing good hockey — moving his feet, backchecking, causing turnovers and creating scoring chances.

He just wasn’t scoring a ton of goals, eight through 29 games before Tuesday night’s game against the Bruins in Boston. It’s one of the reasons the Wild’s 4-3 overtime victory over the Atlantic Division leaders seems so auspicious.

Kaprizov, the Wild’s leading scorer since he joined the team for the abridged 2020 season, scored the tying goal in the third period and the winning goal in overtime for the team’s best win of the season.

“I’m really happy for him,” coach John Hynes said. “Sometimes when elite players, or guys that are point-producers, don’t get what they can get rewarded for, sometimes their game falters. I feel like he just stayed with it, continued to compete and play the right way, and tonight he was a huge difference-maker for us.”

Kaprizov was at the foot of the right circle when Jake Middleton sent a wrist shot into traffic. The puck hit Boston defenseman Brandon Carlo, then hit the far post — and bounced right to Kaprizov, who immediately snapped it into an open corner to make it 2-2.

In overtime, he corralled a Boston shot off the end boards and motored with it the other, creating a three-on-one rush with Joe Eriksson Ek and Brock Faber. Eriksson Ek sent him a cross-crease pass, and Kaprizov one-time it in for the Wild’s fourth victory in five games.

It was his first two-goal game of the season after six multi-goal games last year, which included a hat trick in a Feb. 26 victory over Columbus.

Asked if that was his best game this season, Kaprizov said, “It’s hard to say, because when puck don’t go in the net, you can say, ‘Oh, it’s, like, a bad game.’ Or sometimes you have a lot of chances and you don’t score. Now, I score in best-on-best. Doesn’t matter.”

It wasn’t just Kaprizov.
Ryan Hartman, promoted to the second line with Mats Zuccarello sidelined by an upper body injury, scored a go-ahead goal in the third period one night after scoring his first goal since Nov. 4 in a 4-3 loss at Pittsburgh.

And Marcus Johansson gave Minnesota a 1-0 lead with a power play goal in the first period, his first goal since Oct. 21.

“Obviously hasn’t been easy,” said Johansson, who signed a two-year extension in May after scoring six goals among 18 points in 20 games after being acquired at the trade deadline. “It feels like the looks have been there, but puck’s not going in, and it’s frustrating.

“But as long as you get chances, that’s something. It’s good to see one go in. Hopefully it’ll come a little easier now.”

Minnesota has been on an 8-3-0 roll since Hynes replaced Dean Evason as coach on Nov. 27 yet still has a mountain to climb to make the playoffs for the fourth straight season. It’s a long way from the seven-game losing streak (0-5-2) that cost Evason his job, yet the Wild have made up only three points in the conference standings, and still have three teams to jump to get into postseason position.

Everyone knows they need Kaprizov to score; he netted a combined 87 goals among 183 points in the previous two seasons combined. But to win enough games to reverse course on a terrible start (5-10-4), they’ll need Johansson, and especially, Hartman chipping in offensively.

Hartman signed a three-year, $12 million contract extension this fall in no small part because he scored a career-high 34 goals in 2021-22.

“It’s not going to be (Kaprizov) every night,” Johansson said, “but it was fun to see him score and fun to see him get the game-winner, as well. I think he works so hard and he deserves it.”

The Wild took Wednesday off and will play two more games at Xcel Energy Center before a three-day Christmas break, against Montreal on Thursday night and a rematch with Boston on Saturday.

Zuccarello to LTIR

The Wild placed Zuccarello on long-term injured reserve on Wednesday. He has missed the team’s past two games with an upper body injury and must now sit out at least eight more under the NHL’s LTIR rules. The Wild’s points leader (6-22–28) joins Jonas Brodin (upper body) on LTIR. He will be eligible to return for a Jan. 5 game against Dallas at the X.

Jared Spurgeon (lower body) is day to day and could be available against the Canadiens on Thursday, Hynes said after Tuesday’s game.

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