Kirill Kaprizov scores two goals, Wild hang another loss on Lightning

Off to a hot start, the Minnesota Wild are still a long way from any real accomplishments. They don’t hang banners for having a better-than-expected October.

But after opening November with an impressive win, the Wild can at least claim to have won the Florida state championship for 2024-25.

Trailing early, the Wild erased the deficit and Kirill Kaprizov posted a pair of dramatic goals in the third period, producing a 5-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Friday, and improving to 3-0-0 this season versus teams from the Sunshine State.

The team-leading sixth and seventh goals of the season for Kaprizov, who earlier on Friday was named one of the NHL’s three stars for October, were the difference-makers. Tacking on a second-period assist and a helper on Matt Boldy’s empty-net goal, Kaprizov is averaging better than two points per game for the Wild.

The Wild were playing before a friendly audience for just the third time this season, having gone 5-1-1 on their recent extended road swing.

But the bigger story early on may have been goalie Filip Gustavsson, who allowed a first-period power-play goal on a rebound but kept the powerful Lightning attackers off the board despite several point-blank chances, finishing with 28 saves.

On Friday afternoon, Lightning coach Jon Cooper gave the Wild credit for their recent swing through Florida, which included a thorough spanking of the defending Stanley Cup champ Panthers and a come-from-behind 4-2 win in Tampa. Determined not to get fooled again, the visitors burst from the starting gate on Friday, outshooting Minnesota 12-2 at one point and taking a lead into the first Zamboni break.

After not trailing for the first six games of the season, it was the third consecutive contest where Minnesota surrendered the game’s first goal. But the deficit was short-lived after Joel Ericksson Ek got his fifth of the season in the opening minute of the second period.

Then things got weird.

Marco Rossi, battling hard for a breakaway, shot wide of the Tampa net, but skating behind the Lightning goal, there was somehow a second puck on the ice.

While play continued, Rossi popped the bonus puck between goalie Andrei Vasilevsky’s skates for what sharp-eyed fans at that end of the rink thought was a goal. It was later determined that a puck shot by Kaprizov one shift earlier that officials thought had gone out of play instead had landed just behind the Lightning net, with nobody on the ice noticing until Rossi played it.

Finally, officials blew the play dead and determined two things: 1, no goal, and 2, the rest of the game would be played with just one puck, per long-accepted NHL norms.

After Brock Faber’s second goal of the season gave the Wild their first lead, captain Jared Spurgeon went to the box for slashing and another Lightning power-play goal – this one from Woodbury product Jake Guentzel – produced a 2-2 tie.

Kaprizov’s go-ahead goal came after a long shot slipped through the Lightning goalie just long enough for Rossi to push the loose puck back into the crease. There it hit off Kaprizov’s stick and into the net.

Trailing by two after Boldy’s empty-netter, the Lightning got an extra-attacker goal, but Kaprizov added a second goal with Vasilevsky on the bench for the final margin.

The Tampa Bay goalie had 17 saves and is stuck on 299 career wins. The Wild next host Toronto on Sunday.