The Minnesota Wild once again showed they are capable of playing the high-quality hockey everyone got used to seeing last season when they took on the Arizona Coyotes yesterday afternoon. Some may think it’s not a big deal to beat the Coyotes who’ve been a very up-and-down team this season. However, they’ve taken down some tough teams like the Carolina Hurricanes and New York Islanders recently, so a win was not guaranteed.
The Wild started out strong with a goal nearly halfway through the first period to put the Coyotes back on their heels a bit. They were able to hold the lead through the end of the period and extended it early in the second to 2-0. The Coyotes found a way to respond and make it 2-1, causing the Wild to backtrack slightly until the start of the third.
The Wild got back on track with a goal less than a minute into the final period and that spurred some momentum for them to find the back of the net one more time and push their lead to 4-1. Things seemed to be headed for an easy Wild victory but the Coyotes had other plans. They caught the Wild off guard not once but twice and closed the gap to within one goal with just under two minutes remaining in regulation. Luckily for the Wild, they were able to put a stop to the Coyotes’ final efforts and won the game 4-3.
Wild’s Kaprizov Continues Excellence
The Wild’s Kirill Kaprizov extended his point streak to nine games when he recorded three points in their win over the Coyotes. It was also his third straight multi-point game and the fourth overall during the streak. In his latest endeavor, he got the game going with the first goal for his 13th of the season and as the afternoon went on he added two more assists for his 13th and 14th of the season.
Kaprizov leads the team with 27 points in 21 games played and continued both his own excellent play as well as lifting the play of his linemates. He was double-shifted most of the game because Wild head coach Dean Evason chose to play 11 forwards and seven defensemen. However, thanks to being double-shifted, Kaprizov was able to elevate the play of more of his teammates instead of just his own line as he played on three different lines at different times throughout the game.
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Kaprizov’s goal came while sharing the ice with Marcus Foligno and Joel Eriksson Ek but his assists came from being on lines with Sam Steel and Mats Zuccarello, and Matt Boldy and…
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