In St Paul, the Wild’s Kirill Kaprizov hit for a double on Wednesday night, and Minnesota downed the Tampa Bay Lightning, 5-1.
Filip Gustavsson made 34 saves in the Wild win, he left the ice with two minutes left in the game due to an illness. Marc-Andre Fleury came onb in relief, but did not face a shot.
“(He) skated off and [got sick],” Wild coach Dean Evason said. “Don’t know anything else. Obviously, they’re evaluating him. Don’t know at this point. That was all I was told.”
Minnesota (improved to 2-13-2.
“You always compare yourself to those teams that go all the way to the end,” Wild captain Jared Spurgeon said. “They’ve been there the last little while, so to be able to put in an effort like that, it’s awesome for us.”
Brayden Point was the lone striker for the Lightning.
Calen Addison had a goal and three points for Minnesota in the win.
“I think it’s just playing with confidence, moving my feet,” Addison said. “I’ve been trying to focus on just getting pucks to the net, not necessarily on net, but around the net and just creating chances for the guys.”
Tampa dropped to 24-12-1.
The Wild took a 1-0 first period lead on a goal from Joel Eriksson Ek, Kaprizov pushed the lead to 2-0 in the second period.
Addison scored to make it 3-0 before Point got the Lightning on the board 3-1 in the second.
“We had a good start to the second period, lot of zone time, lot of good looks, but that power play and they score two minutes later,” Tampa’s Victor Hedman said. “It’s tough climbing back down 3-0.”
The Wild replied with a goal from Sam Steel in the 16th minute of the middle frame for a 4-1 lead headed to the third period.
Kaprizov scored late in the third period for the 5-1 final.
Brian Elliott made 28 saves in the Tampa loss.
“They got a good team,” Lightning captain Steven Stamkos said. “A big, strong, heavy team. We had to have everything go well for us tonight and it just didn’t.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.