Wild even series with Blues behind Kirill Kaprizov hat trick
Kirill Kaprizov's hat trick led the Minnesota Wild to a runaway 6-2 victory in Game 2 of their best-of-seven series against the St. Louis Blues.
The win evens the series 1-1 going into Game 3 Friday night in St. Louis.
Kaprizov scored with less than a minute left in the first period and then scored a pair of goals in the third period to boost Minnesota's lead from 4-2 to 6-2. His goal to make it 5-2 came on a beautiful feed from Mats Zuccarello, while he finished off the hat trick when the Blues pulled their goal with more than seven minutes to play.
Ironically, Kaprizov completed his hat trick 49 seconds after Joel Eriksson Ek's third goal of the night was erased when a review found Marcus Foligno offsides.
Dean Evason begged the Wild to "stay out of the crap" and "suck it up" if the Blues took cheap shots. Minnesota didn't retaliate to any St. Louis post-whistle aggression, but they were still called for seven penalties that led to five Blues power plays.
The difference from Game 1 was that St. Louis capitalized on just one of those power plays, whereas the Blues scored twice on the power play in Game 1 in addition to another goal just one second after another power play had ended.
Minnesota hammered the Blues in the first period, getting a goal from Eriksson Ek with 10:27 left in the period. Freddy Gaudreau slammed home a rebound in front of the net on a power play to go up 2-0, and Kaprizov netted a power play goal to make it 3-0. Eriksson Ek's second of the night put Minnesota up 4-0 just 51 seconds into the second period.
The offensive firepower was plenty for Marc-Andre Fleury, who responded in vintage fashion after giving up four goals in a Game 1 loss. Fleury made 32 saves, only surrendering goals on a difficult rebound in the second period and then getting beat by a Vladimir Tarasenko wrist shot early in the third period.
Game 3 is 8:30 p.m. Friday and will be televised on Bally Sports North and TNT.
