The Minnesota Wild were back home after nearly three weeks on the road on Friday night, Nov. 1, when they took on the Tampa Bay Lightning. After missing the past five games due to injury and illness, Ryan Hartman returned for the Wild. Filip Gustavsson was in net for the Wild, looking to rebound from his tough loss against the Philadelphia Flyers nearly a week ago.
It was a close-knit affair as each team answered each other’s goals, and it took the third period to sort it all out. After a flurry of goals for both sides, the Wild came out on top 5-3 to improve to 6-1-2 while the Lightning moved to 7-3-0.
Game Recap
It took a while for these two teams to get going score-wise despite a very back-and-forth first period with chances for both sides. However, a too-many-men-on-the-ice penalty against the Wild late in the period gave the Lightning the chance they needed, and they pounced. Brayden Point knocked in a rebound, and his team snuck out with the 1-0 lead.
The second period would start with a bang. The Wild scored just 47 seconds into the second period, with Kirill Kaprizov setting up Joel Eriksson Ek, who put the one-timer right past Andrei Vasilevskiy to tie the game at 1. Again, despite some strong chances for both sides and two pucks at one point, the rest of the period was scoreless, and it would take the third to figure it out.
The Wild came out on a mission in the third, and Brock Faber stepped up to get it started. He shot from the top of the circles and beat Vasilevskiy to take the Wild’s first lead. It wouldn’t last as the Wild would give up one a few minutes later to Jake Guentzel on the penalty kill, and it was all tied up at 2.
The Wild’s hero of the night turned out to also be their star, Kaprizov, who knocked the puck in off his knee to give his team the 3-2 lead late in the third. That wasn’t the final goal, however, as just over a minute later, Matt Boldy would score an empty-net goal to give his team the two-goal lead.
That lead was needed as the Lightning answered almost immediately with a goal by Nicholas Paul to get his team back within one. Kaprizov was on a scoring rampage against the Lightning as he tallied an empty net goal for his second of the game and regained his team’s two-goal lead with under 30 seconds to play.
Kaprizov took home the game’s number one star with two goals and one assist. Gustavsson stopped 27 shots for a .900 save percentage. The Wild will practice on Saturday, Nov. 2, before they are at home once again to host the Toronto Maple Leafs on Sunday, Nov. 3, while the Lightning will remain on the road to face the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday.