Detroit Lakes, MN (KDLM) – The Minnesota Wild beat the Vancouver Canucks 4-2 Sunday night, and Kirill Kaprizov scored his NHL-leading 13th goal of the season.
Kaprizov also had an assist, and Quinn Hughes scored a goal and added an assist while reaching 500 career points in his first game back in Vancouver. Hughes was drafted by the Canucks seventh overall in 2018.
With the win, Minnesota moved two points ahead of the Utah Mammoth for first place in the Central Division. The Wild now have 18 points with an 8-3-2 record. Sunday’s game was the second half of a back-to-back that started with a 5-1 win in Seattle on Saturday night.
Maxim Shabanov put Minnesota on the board with a power-play goal late in the first period, finishing a pass from Kaprizov across the crease. That came even though Vancouver outshot the Wild 10-5 in the opening period.
Bobby Brink made it 2-0 early in the second period, and Hughes followed with a power-play goal off a rebound for his 500th career point. Hughes then sent Kaprizov in alone on a breakaway early in the third, and Kaprizov finished it with a deke at 3:38 to make it 4-0.
Max Sasson and Brock Boeser scored for Vancouver, and goalie Leevi Merilainen made 30 saves. The Canucks have now lost 10 games in a row.
Calvin Pickard stopped 15 shots in just his second start of the season to earn his first win with the Wild. Minnesota went 2-for-5 on the power play. Hughes and Kaprizov have each picked up points in 11 of the Wild’s 13 games this season.
The Wild close out their five-game road trip Tuesday, October 27th, against the Utah Mammoth, with first place in the Central Division on the line.
FOLLOW US FOR INSTANT UPDATES!
