The Minnesota Wild ended October with a hot start to their season. They went 5-1-1 on a seven-game road trip, with losses to Winnipeg and Philadelphia. However, they swept two games in Florida against the Tampa Bay Lightning, who they are facing tonight in St. Paul and the Florida Panthers. Their most recent win was against the Pittsburg Penguins in a return to where Wild goalie Marc-Andre Fleury began his career in 2003. It was an emotional night for fans, former teammates and for The Flower himself. At the end of the night, Fleury and the Wild prevailed with a 5-3 victory.
The Wild also started the season with the second-longest streak in NHL history in which they didn’t trail on the scoreboard in regulation. Oh, and Filip Gustavsson became just the 15th goalie in NHL history to score a goalie goal. No big whoop.
All the feels aside, it was back to business last night at the X. Tampa Bay, who is 7-3 on the season is always a solid test for the Wild, who beat Tampa 4-2 in their first matchup of the season in Tampa Bay. No surprise thus far in the season, Kirill Kaprizov is leading the Wild in points, to no surprise, with five goals and 13 assists (18 pts). Matt Boldy is second on the team with four goals and seven assists (11pts) and Mats Zuccarello, also has five goals and four assists.
The Lightning controlled the first period, outshooting the Wild 15-6. With a pesky defense, the Lightning continually shut down passing lanes and caused turnovers. That being said, the Wild were largely playing a “dump and chase” game, shooting the pucks into the offensive zone, only to have the Lightning snuff out their efforts.
No offensive momentum was to be had in the first period for the Wild. Three penalties in the first for the Wild. One of which was a fiver for fighting when Jakob Lauko squared off with Michael Eyssimont of the Lightning. Later on, Zuccarello ended up in the back of the net with a Lightning player and Zuccarello was called for interference. The Wild successfully killed off the Lightning that power play. After a two-minute minor for too many men on the ice by the Wild, however, the Lightning tallied the game’s first goal when Brandon Point cleared a rebound shot past a sprawling Gustavsson. Tampa Bay up, 1-0.
Just 47 seconds into the second period, Joel Eriksson Ek took a beautiful feed from Kirill Kaprizov and sniped it top shelf past Lightning tendie Andrei Vasilevskiy, who was looking for his 300th career win. Tie game 1-1 going into the third period.
Brock Faber would score his second goal of the year from near the blue line, taking a pass from Jake Middleton. Middleton, who extended his career-best point streak to five games, is expecting to become a father in the very near future.
The Lightning would respond on the power play about four minutes later with a Jake Guentzel goal to tie the game at two goals per team. With just over five minutes left in regulation, Marco Rossi would take a shot from the side of the net which would slip through into the crease and Kaprizov would bury it into the net from there. This put the Wild back in front, and they would remain there as Matt Boldy would add an empty-netter, putting the good guys up 4-2.
However, just 37 seconds after the Boldy goal, Nick Paul would make it interesting with a late score to make it a 4-3 game. Even with a two-goal deficit, a team like Tampa Bay isn’t going to just quit. The nervous buzz from the crowd was evident (and audible). All of that worry would not be needed as Kaprizov would add a late empty-netter to finally put away the Lightning.
Great, great win for the Wild. A bit ugly at times, but a gritty, hard-fought victory against any team shows heart and character as the Wild improve to 2-0 this season against the Lightning.
After the game, young defenseman, Brock Faber admitted they started slow, but the team “is playing with a lot more confidence” than last year when attributing their fast start to the season this year. When asked about Kaprizov’s hot point streak, that “he works his ass off”.
Kaprizov is currently leading the league in points and has a team-record seven-game, multi-point streak. In his post-game interview, Kaprizov quipped that he needed “better hands” when asked about his two shots going over the net from in-close. He added that he is feeling good to start the season with his point streak. With two goals and an assist, Kaprizov has pushed his league-leading point total to 21 points (7G, 14A).
The Wild have won six of their last seven contests (now 7-1-2), and they will host the Toronto Maple Leafs (6-4-1) on Sunday at the X. Great start to the season for the Wild. Until next time, Go Wild!!!!
The Morning Skate 
I can see Krill having even bigger year than last year.
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