ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Ryan Hartman and Marcus Foligno scored 52 seconds apart in the third period to break a tie and the Minnesota Wild scored four times in the final frame in a 6-3 win over the Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday night (Dec. 27, 2023).
Kirill Kaprizov extended his goal-scoring streak to four games, Marcus Johansson scored twice, and Matt Boldy added a goal for Minnesota, which has won four in a row and seven of eight. The Wild are 11-3-0 since John Hynes took over behind the bench — including seven straight home wins — after an uninspiring 4-1 loss in Detroit Nov. 26 extended a losing streak to seven games and resulted in the firing of Dean Evason.
“We’ve regrouped. It shows a lot of character in our group and how we were able to be resilient,” Hartman said.
Filip Gustavsson made 25 saves and improved to 8-2 in his last 10 starts.
“We can do a lot. We’re trending in the right direction. And it’s fun hockey to play right now,” Johansson said.
Patrick Kane scored for the fourth straight game and Alex DeBrincat and Daniel Sprong added goals as the Red Wings lost for the sixth time in seven games. Detroit is 2-8-1 in its last 11 games. James Reimer finished with 25 saves; he has allowed 24 goals in his last five starts.
Detroit coach Derek Lalonde did not put this loss on his netminder.
“The difference in the third is the puck ended in the back of the net off of turnovers, where it did not in the second,” he said. “This is sloppy DNA stuff; this was not us over the first 25 games. … Now just blue-line turnovers, high-zone turnovers. It’s disappointing and it’s gonna come out of our game.”
DeBrincat scored a one-timer of a feed from Shayne Gostisbehere for a power-play goal early in the third period, tying the game at 2. Less than two minutes later, Pat Maroon carried the puck down the left side and passed to a trailing Hartman, who converted the feed in the slot for his third goal in three games. Hartman had missed the last two games with an upper-body injury.
Less than a minute later, Foligno scored while falling, tucking a rebound behind Reimer. Johansson scored his second of the game 75 seconds later to give the Wild a 5-2 lead.
“Nice to see, and nice to see that we can break away from a team like that,” Foligno said.
A goal by Sprong got Detroit within 5-3, but Kaprizov scored on a redirect with 5:45 remaining.
Kaprizov, the NHL’s first star for the week ending Dec. 24, has a five-game point streak, with five goals and four assists.
Boldy converted a feed from Kaprizov 38 seconds into the game for a 1-0 lead.
Kane countered six minutes later, whistling a wrist shot from the left dot past Gustavsson for his fifth goal in four games, extending his points streak to five games. Kane last scored in four straight games during a six-game stretch from Nov. 7-17, 2019, with Chicago.
Johansson scored off a rebound in the slot early in the second period for a 2-1 Minnesota lead.
“Too many turnovers, giving them too many easy chances off the rush. A lot of guys in this league can make a lot of plays, and when you give them easy offense, they get momentum off that, so obviously that was the case tonight,” Kane said.
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