Where would the Minnesota Wild be without Kirill Kaprizov? I don’t want to think about it.
It was going to be a tight game against the divisional rival Colorado Avalanche no matter what. The amount of skill the home team had in their lineup, and the Wild had to come into their building missing Jonas Brodin, Jared Spurgeon, and Joel Eriksson Ek — their three most important players defensively.
But it was Kaprizov’s heroics that not only saved the Wild once, but twice.
After some back and forth, and crawling back into the competition, the Wild’s star unleashed a wicked tight-angle shot to tie the game 2-2 with still more than half of the final frame remaining.