Young stars shine, Kaprizov delivers 2nd straight OT winner for Wild
Kirill Kaprizov knows what to do with the puck in overtime.
The Wild superstar delivered the game-winning overtime goal Tuesday night in Boston and he donned the cape again Thursday night as he ripped home the game-winner in a 4-3 home victory over the Montreal Canadiens.
Kaprizov's winner sent St. Paul into a frenzy with just five seconds left in overtime, a puck that rocketed off his stick after a beautiful feed through traffic from Marcus Johansson.
Kaprizov had a goal and two assists after scoring a pair of goals against the Bruins. After a slow start to his season, the Russian star has six points in his last three games and has goals in consecutive games for the first time since the third and fourth games of the season back in October.
While Kaprizov played the hero role in overtime, a trio of young stars also shined.
Marco Rossi's night was intense. The rookie had his first career three-point game and finished with a Gordie Howe hat trick, recording a goal, two assists and getting into a fight. But he also sat out 17 consecutive minutes for three penalties when he got physical after Montreal's Kaiden Guhle delivered a hard check on Kaprizov.
The big hit from Guhle came midway through the second period, prompting the diminutive Rossi to charge Guhle and instigate a fight. The officials slapped Rossi with two minutes for charging, 10 for instigating and five more for fighting. He sat out the final nine-plus minutes of the second period and didn't return until nearly half the third period had evaporated.
Rossi's goal, his 11th of the season, came 1 minute, 35 seconds after Matt Boldy's ninth goal of the season — and his eighth in 12 games since Dean Evason was fired and replaced by John Hynes — in the first period.
Rossi and Kaprizov assisted Boldy's goal and then the duo was credited with assists again when rookie defenseman Brock Faber sniped a long shot for a goal and a 3-2 lead.
Faber was on the ice for a career-high 33 minutes, 22 seconds. He's eclipsed 30 minutes in four of the last five games as Minnesota leans heavily on the former Golden Gopher while fellow defensemen Jonas Brodin and Jared Spurgeon are injured.
Minnesota has won nine of 12 games under Hynes. At 14-13-4 they're above .500 for the first time since they were 2-1-0. They're also up to 32 points, just two points out of a wild-card spot in the West.
Up next: Wild vs. Boston, Saturday at 7 p.m. CT.
Dec 21, 2023; Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Wild center Marco Rossi (23) and Montreal Canadiens defenseman Kaiden Guhle (21) fight in the second period at Xcel Energy Center.
Credit: Matt Blewett-USA TODAY Sports
