In St Paul, Kirill Kaprizov scored midway through the the third period on Friday night to snap a 2-2 tie and send the Wild to a 3-2 win over the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins.
Marc-Andre Fleury made 33 saves in the win, and was stellar in the third period protecting the lead with 13 saves.
Minnesota moved to 23-23-5.
“Marc was great. A great evening,” Wild coach John Hynes said. “… The way he performed. I told the team after the game, just his performance and his competitiveness was great to see. It was a big difference in the game. Then the way the players play in front of him. It’s fun to be involved in that and see how much he battles and how much he means to the team, and you can see his impact he has the group, how they battle and how bad they want to win for him.”
Matt Boldy staked the Wild to a 1-0 lead with 13 minutes gone in the opening stanza. He scored off a power play.
“I think everyone had an impact,” Boldy said. “There weren’t any passengers. And that’s a step in the right direction, for sure.”
The Pens got even with a marker from Reilly Smith at 2:54 of the middle frame for a 1-1 tie.
Pittsburgh dropped to 23-18-7.
“I thought we competed hard,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “You know, there were momentum swings in the game. They had it for a period of time. We had it for a period of time.”
The Wild reclaimed the lead at 6:12 of the second period on a strike by Jonas Brodin.
Sidney Crosby tied the game, 2-2, off the power play with 61 seconds gone in the third period.
“Obviously, we pushed pretty hard there late,” Crosby said. “You always know that [Fleury’s] going to compete and battle, but you still ultimately want to get the two points.”
Alex Nedeljkovic made 27 saves in the loss.
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