Stars topple Wild in St. Paul; Kaprizov scores great goal
Marc-Andre Fleury put on a show but it wasn't enough to boost the Minnesota Wild to a win over the Dallas Stars Thursday night. Dallas outshot the Wild 43-25 and skated away with a 4-1 win in St. Paul.
The first three Dallas goals were tipped in front of the night, two of them bouncing wildly off the ice and by Fleury, who had very little chance to stop any of the Stars' goals. Despite allowing three (two on the power play), Fleury was outstanding.
The fourth goal was flipped into an empty net by Tyler Seguin late in the third period.
On the other end of the rink, the Wild dinged the posts numerous times, including on a third-period power play when Jordan Greenway hit the post square on a tremendous scoring chance in front of the net.
Just minutes later, with Dallas on a power play and leading 2-1, Jamie Benn scored to make it a 3-1 game with under six minutes to play. That was the dagger.
Benn'd it like Jamie.
— Dallas Stars (@DallasStars) December 30, 2022
📺: @BallySportsSW Extra | #TexasHockey pic.twitter.com/CCMfBxaRml
Minnesota's lone goal was a thing of beauty by Kirill Kaprizov, who shot from inside the end line and bounced the puck off Jake Oettinger and into the net for a goal in the first period.
How does he do it!?!?
— Bally Sports North (@BallySportsNOR) December 30, 2022
Dolla. Bill. Kirill. 🚨🚨🚨 #MNwild pic.twitter.com/aAFV9Ep8M0
It was Kaprizov's 20th goal in 34 games this season. He had 14 goals through 34 games last season when he finished with 47 goals and a franchise record 108 points.
Dallas was 2-of-3 on the power play, outshot Minnesota by 18 and won 44 of 63 faceoffs to keep constant pressure on the Wild defense. It was the Wild's worst performance on faceoffs this season.
That dominant performance is why the Stars lead the Central Division with 50 points, eight points in front of the third-place Wild.
Up next: Wild vs. St. Louis Blues on New Year's Eve.
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.