Kirill Kaprizov the hero with hat trick as desperate Wild win
Kirill Kaprizov was a man on a mission Sunday in San Jose as he netted his sixth career hat trick to propel the Minnesota Wild to a 4-3 win over the Sharks.
The win snapped a three-game losing streak and kept Minnesota eight points out of the wild card race with 20 games left in the regular season. At 64 points, the Wild are chasing the Kings and Predators (both at 72 points) for the two wild card spots. They also are staring up at the Blues and Flames (both at 65 points) in the standings.
Minnesota trailed 2-0 after ex-Wild wingers Mikael Granlund (power play) and Nico Sturm (shorthanded) scored goals within the first five minutes of the second period, only to have Freddy Gaudreau score his fourth of the season on a power play to cut the deficit in half.
Just 75 seconds after Gaudreau's goal, Kaprizov scored his first of the night to tie the game 2-2. Then in the third period the Sharks took a 3-2 lead when Anthony Duclair scored just 23 seconds into the frame, only to have Kaprizov fire back with his second of the night 2 minutes, 15 seconds later.
Kaprizov then scored the go-ahead goal with 3:59 to play.
LET THE HATS FLY FOR OUR KING KAPRIZOV 🎩🎩🎩#mnwild pic.twitter.com/qlQDCCdLrz
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) March 4, 2024
"They got Kaprizov and we don't. That was really the difference in the game tonight. He scores goals that a lot of guys can't score in this league," San Jose head coach David Quinn said afterward, according to Sharks insider Sheng Peng.
Kaprizov's three hat tricks is tied for second most in the NHL this season with Brock Boeser and Zac Hyman. Auston Matthews has six hat tricks in 59 games to lead the league.
The Wild needed the win Sunday and now they're off until Thursday. Scoreboard watchers will have eyes on the Kings and Predators as they both play (not each other) Tuesday night, so Minnesota could be 10 points out by the time they play again Thursday night in Arizona.
Also on the calendar this week is the NHL trade deadline, which hits Friday afternoon.
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.