Wild, Bruins battle it out in overtime thriller

Kirill Kaprizov was the hero in overtime for Minnesota.

Author:
Joe Nelson
Publish date:
Dec 19, 2023 9:56 PM EST

A loss in Pittsburgh followed by a game in Boston the next night was a recipe for disaster, but Marc-Andre Fleury and the resilient Minnesota Wild weren’t having it.

It was an overtime thriller Tuesday night, a back-and-forth affair that was ended when Joel Eriksson found Kirill Kaprizov for a one-timer and the game-winning goal, his second of the night in the 4-3 victory.

Trailing 2-1 late in the third period, Kaprizov buried a juicy rebound after Jake Middleton’s shot hit the post to tie the game with 6:38 remaining.

Just shy of two minutes later Ryan Hartman gobbled up a blocked shot in front of the net and flipped it past goalie Linus Ullmark for the go-ahead goal.

Boston, 10-2-2 at home before the Wild arrived, weren’t done yet.

Alex Goligoski went to the box with 2:31 to play for high-sticking and the Bruins took advantage of a chaotic scrum in front of Fleury as Brad Marchand found the puck in a mess of bodies and fired it into the upper-left corner of the net for the tying goal with 1:06 remaining.

Fleury made 39 saves in regulation and finished the night with 40 and his 549th career win, moving him within two of Patrick Roy for second in NHL history.

Minnesota played without two of their top defensemen in Jonas Brodin (arm) and Jared Spurgeon (day to day), and one of their best forwards in Mats Zuccarello (week to week) — and they later lost Vinni Lettieri to injury — but they still battled to the bitter end.

Marcus Johansson scored the first goal of the night for Minnesota and David Pastrnak scored his 18th and 19th goals of the season for the Bruins. Pastrnak had 11 shots on goal in the game.