A new record has been set in the State of Hockey.
On Saturday night, the Minnesota Wild came into PNC Arena to face the Carolina Hurricanes to start a road trip. The one thing on the minds of Wild fans and players was when would Kirill Kaprizov break the franchise’s single-season points record?
The Wild opened the scoring at around the halfway point in the first period when Kaprizov set up Mats Zuccarello for a power play goal, and with Kaprizov’s assist on the goal, he owned the record with his 84th point of the year.
The goal was Zuccarello’s 20th of the season and the assist was Kaprizov’s 46th.
Kirill Kaprizov sets the @mnwild record for most points in a single season with an 🍎! 👏 pic.twitter.com/MNq8kQZ4PR
— NHL (@NHL) April 2, 2022
At about two minutes into the second period, defenseman Dmitry Kulikov would take a tripping penalty on Carolina’s Vincent Trocheck. After killing the penalty, it would be Kulikov himself scoring the Wild’s second goal of the game. All credit is due to Tyson Jost for the backhand pass to Kulikov who would beat Freddy Anderson five-hole for his 5th of the season.
JOST IN THE NICK OF TIME TO KULI#mnwild pic.twitter.com/RnejtEVAeJ
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) April 3, 2022
We do need to make it well known that Marc-Andre Fleury was absolutely phenomenal the entire game but his best strech was probably during the second period when he stopped 15 Carolina shots.
Fleury's feeling it 🌸 pic.twitter.com/wA2tNGxyH7
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) April 3, 2022
Although the Hurricanes were giving the Wild problems throughout the first two periods, it surely didn’t seem like they were in full force until the thirdperiod and obviously so. At about seven and a half minutes in, Kaprizov would notch his 85th point of the season thanks in part to the sharp angle goal he scored on a feed from his buddy, Zuccarello.
https://twitter.com/mnwild/status/1510428166975807488
Not sure if it’s something that the coaching staff is preaching or if there’s something in the water in Minnesota but it sure seems we’ve seen a trend getting started with the sharp angle shot goals. With Kaprizov’s, that’s his 39th of the season and that would put him into the conversation for a chance to claim the all-time goals record for the Wild franchise which is currently owned by Eric Staal and Marian Gaborik.
Final Thoughts?
It’s a fantastic way for the Wild to start off with a win on this road trip let alone against the Hurricanes. Carolina has dominated teams that have come into PNC Arena all year simply because they’ve blinked. But the Wild have surely shown their Cup contending potential is alive and well.
All stats/info from NHL.com