Kirill Kaprizov scored the tiebreaking goal with 5:23 remaining in regulation, adding an empty-netter and an assist as the Minnesota Wild continued their strong start with a 5-3 victory over the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning on Friday night in Saint Paul, Minn.
With the game squared at 2-2, Tampa Bay goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy (17 saves) couldn’t keep a Minnesota shot from sneaking through his legs. The Wild’s Marco Rossi tried to tuck the puck in, but a trailing Kaprizov did convert to put the home team ahead for good and record his seventh straight multi-point contest.
Empty-netters from Matt Boldy and Kaprizov sandwiched Nick Paul’s goal for the Lightning with 2:26 remaining, as the Wild beat Tampa Bay for the second time in a little more than a week. Joel Eriksson Ek and Brock Faber also scored for Minnesota, which is 7-1-2 through 10 games.
Brayden Point and Jake Guentzel scored power-play goals for Tampa Bay, which had won three straight. The Lightning have won just three out of 18 games at Minnesota all-time.
Tampa Bay owned a 15-6 shots-on-goal advantage through the first 20 minutes, and it was finally rewarded with 45 seconds remaining in the opening period. The Lightning snapped an 0-for-11 power-play drought when Point pounced on the puck in the slot off Victor Hedman’s blast and sent it in over a sprawling Filip Gustavsson (27 saves).
However, Minnesota equalized just 47 seconds into the second period. Kaprizov nabbed the puck, turned around Lightning defenseman Erik Cernak, surged in and dumped it back for Eriksson Ek to shoot it by Vasilevskiy.
The Wild went ahead 2:41 into the third when a wide-open Faber sent in a brilliant wrister from the high slot and through some modest traffic.
However, Minnesota didn’t keep the lead long. Tampa Bay again came through on the power play, this time via Guentzel, who grew up in the Saint Paul area. He took a pass on the wing from Hedman and sent the puck through the legs of Gustavsson with 13:37 remaining in regulation.
–Field Level Media
