Apr 10, 2022; Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Wild left wing Kirill Kaprizov (97) celebrates a first period goal against the Los Angeles Kings at Xcel Energy Center. Mandatory Credit: Matt Krohn-USA TODAY Sports
By Field Level Media via Reuters
Kirill Kaprizov equaled a franchise record for goals, while Matt Boldy and Jared Spurgeon collected one goal and one assist as the Minnesota Wild collected six unanswered tallies to claim a 6-3 home win over the Los Angeles Kings on Sunday.
Mats Zuccarello, Marcus Foligno and Nick Bjugstad also scored for the Wild (44-21-6, 94 points), who erased a 3-0 deficit. Goalie Marc-Andre Fleury made 31 saves after a difficult start for Minnesota, which moved up to second place in the Central Division.
Rasmus Kupari, Carl Grundstrom and Adrian Kempe scored for the Kings (38-26-10, 86 points), who have lost three straight games. Goalie Cal Petersen stopped 27 shots. Los Angeles is third in the Pacific Division.
With his team trailing 3-0 just beyond the midway point of the first period, Kaprizov netted his 42nd goal of the season — and 18th in 19 games — on a power play at 16:04 to equal the Wild mark for goals in a season. Boldy tallied 50 seconds later by one-timing a slap shot from the left faceoff dot for his 13th tally.
Spurgeon evened the count 99 seconds into the second period when he intercepted a leaning attempt before racing to the net and lifting a back-hander into the cage for his seventh of the season — Minnesota’s third goal on three consecutive shots. Then, Zuccarello zipped a shot into the top shelf just before the midway point for his 22nd of the season to put the Wild ahead for the first time.
That was followed by Foligno’s nifty deflection of Jordie Benn’s point shot at 13:59 of the second period for his 21st of the season, and Bjugstad’s short-handed tally at 3:16 of the final frame for his sixth of the season.
It’s the first time the Wild have won after falling into a three-goal deficit since Nov. 16, 2017.
As for the Kings, it was a crushing finish after staking themselves to a 3-0 lead by the 10:17 mark of the first period.
Kupari scored a short-handed goal 93 seconds into the clash, his fifth of the season, on a partial breakaway — the 11th short-handed goal of the season for Los Angeles and fifth in 10 games — and Grundstrom lifted a back-hand shot for his ninth of the season seven minutes later.
Kempe gave the visitors three goals on their first five shots when he blasted a one-timer from the point for his 32nd of the season while on the power play, but it was all Wild after that.
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