Kirill Kaprizov completed a hat trick with a power-play goal with 1:51 left in the third period Sunday, lifting the Minnesota Wild to a 5-4 win over the Detroit Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena after Detroit erased a three-goal deficit.
Kaprizov beat Cam Talbot with a bar-down slap shot from the right face-off dot, capping a four-game point streak in which he has 7 points on five goals and two assists. Matt Boldy added a goal and an assist, Mats Zuccarello had two assists and Ryan Hartman had two assists as Filip Gustavsson made 18 saves for Minnesota.
The game turned in a third period that looked lost for Minnesota and then swung back in its favor. Detroit scored three times in a span of 7:18, starting when Axel Sandin-Pellikka cut the lead to 4-2 at 7:18. J.T. Compher made it 4-3 at 11:14, and Patrick Kane tied it 4-4 at 14:36 before taking a tripping penalty at 16:23 that set up the decisive power play.
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Detroit outshot Minnesota 14-7 in the third period, but the Red Wings could not finish the comeback. Talbot made 15 saves for Detroit, which has lost four of its past five games and entered the day two points behind the Ottawa Senators for the second wild card in the Eastern Conference. Minnesota, meanwhile, won its third straight game and its fourth of its past five, moving within two points of the idle Dallas Stars for second place in the Central Division.
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Wild coach John Hynes said his team had not been in that kind of extended momentum swing in quite a while, and he was glad it happened because there are things Minnesota can learn from a game like this and still find a way to win. Kaprizov said the boys made some nice plays and that after a few earlier power-play chances, it felt especially good to get one in that late. Andrew Copp said Minnesota has to regroup on Monday’s day off and bring as much intensity and jam as it can on Tuesday, adding that the Red Wings are not six feet under yet. The result left both teams with five games remaining and plenty still at stake.
