Kirill Kaprizov scored two goals and had an assist as the Minnesota Wild evened their series against the Vegas Golden Knights with a 5-2 victory in Game 2 of the Western Conference quarterfinals on Tuesday in Las Vegas.
Matt Boldy had a goal and an assist and Marcus Foligno and Mats Zuccarello also scored for Minnesota, which scored four times over a seven-shot stretch while building a 4-0 lead. Filip Gustavsson finished with 30 saves for the victory.
Foligno praised Gustavsson: “We got fortunate there where we had a goalie that was ready to go. We just weren’t executing, and then we got to our game. We played physical and we played smart. Really liked the pushback we had in the first (period), and it kind of settled our nerves. Obviously, when you pop a couple early, too, it really calms things down.”
Foligno added a franchise-record 12 hits, tied for the eighth most ever in an NHL playoff game.
“We really like the way we just defended and just stayed on top of these guys, and our compete level is really there right now,” Foligno said.
Noah Hanifin and Tomas Hertl scored goals and Adin Hill stopped 12 of 16 shots for Vegas. The best-of-seven series now moves to Saint Paul, Minn., for games on Thursday and Saturday.
Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said of the Wild, “I don’t think they changed their game much (from Game 1) to be honest with you. I think we gave them life early, and this is the playoffs. They’re a good team. They’re a good defensive team. It’s right up their alley. They know how to play with a lead.”
Vegas, a 4-2 winner in Game 1, started quickly firing the first five shots on goal but couldn’t get one past Gustavsson. The Wild dominated the rest of the first period, scoring three times in a four-shot span.
Boldy, who scored both Minnesota goals in the opener, made it 1-0 at the 9:56 mark with a breakaway goal. He took a long saucer pass from Kaprizov and beat Hill with a wrist shot five-hole to give Minnesota its first lead of the series. Boldy became the second player in franchise history to score three consecutive goals in the postseason, joining Marian Gaborik (2003).
Foligno made it 2-0 when he slammed in a rebound of a Ryan Hartman shot from the low slot. Zuccarello followed at the 17:15 mark when he took a Marcus Johansson pass rushing down the slot and fired a wrist shot off Hill’s glove.
The Wild extended their lead to 4-0 at 3:59 of the second period when Kaprizov finished a two-on-one with Boldy with a wrist shot that squirted in off Hill’s pads.
“They were hungrier than us and more competitive than us the first half of the game, and it showed,” Cassidy said. “That was on us early on. Credit them forcing us into mistakes, but some of them, we just have to take care of the puck better.”
Hanifin cut into the deficit at 12:04 of the middle period with a wrist shot from the slot past Gustavsson’s glove side.
Vegas closed within 4-2 at 2:26 of the third period when Hertl chipped in Alex Pietrangelo’s pass into the low slot for his second goal of the playoffs.
The Golden Knights pulled Hill for an extra attacker with 3:49 remaining, and Kaprizov sealed the win with a length-of-the-ice empty-netter from the boards behind his own net a minute later. He has five points in the series.
“I think we gave ourselves an opportunity to get back into the game, but when you’re down that much, it’s hard,” Cassidy said.
–Field Level Media
