ST. PAUL, Minn. — Not long after the Detroit Red Wings tied the score early in the third period, Ryan Hartman and Marcus Foligno scored 52 seconds apart to help deliver the Wild a 6-3 win on Wednesday. Marcus Johansson scored a season-best two goals and three points, Kirill Kaprizov had a goal and assist, Matt Boldy also scored and Filip Gustavsson won for the eighth time in his past 10 starts as the Wild won their seventh home game out of seven for new coach John Hynes.
- The Wild improved to 11-3 under Hynes.
- Kaprizov, the reigning No. 1 Star of the Week in the NHL, extended his point streak to five games (five goals, nine points). He had six shots.
- The Wild improved to 10-0 when they score first under Hynes, and 13-1-3 this season.
- The Wild are off until the front end of a home-and-home with the Jets that starts in Winnipeg on Saturday afternoon.
Johansson-Rossi-Hartman line plus-3
With Ryan Hartman back after missing two games with an upper-body injury, Hynes reunited the Johansson-Marco Rossi-Hartman line and it resulted in one second-period goal, two third-period goals and lots of other scoring chances.
After a great play by Rossi to trigger a rush up the ice in the second, Hartman hit the gas just inside the offensive blue line, split two defenders and only didn’t score because of a great save by James Reimer. But the Red Wings cleared the rebound right onto the stick of Johansson for an unassisted goal. In the third, Johansson teed up Hartman for a goal, then Rossi set up Johansson for a three-point game.
Hartman’s injury came at a bad time for the grinder because he had just heated up with goals in consecutive games after biding his time on the fourth line until Mats Zuccarello was injured. Hartman had a healthy conversation with Hynes and understood that the Wild won the first two games under the new coach with him suspended and that he’d just have to wait to be elevated in the lineup.
“I mean, we were winning hockey games,” Hartman said when asked how he stayed patient. “I’ll play goalie if we’re winning hockey games.”
Wild killer Patrick Kane strikes quickly
If Wild fans weren’t aware that Patrick Kane was back in the NHL after his offseason hip surgery, they quickly found out the Wild slayer was back. Boldy gave the Wild a 1-0 lead just 38 seconds into the contest, but Kane tied the score at 6:32 when Zach Bogosian was unaware he slipped behind him at the Wild blue line. Just onside, Kane whistled a shot past Gustavsson for his sixth goal and 11th point in 11 games for the Red Wings. The longtime Chicago Blackhawk and future Hall of Famer now has 25 career goals against the Wild (third all-time) and 54 points (tied for fourth).
What a month for Matt Boldy
Remember, the last time Boldy faced the Red Wings, he took two penalties and struck out on a bunch of scoring chances, triggering former coach Dean Evason to criticize him after the game. He had one goal in 12 games at that point in the season. Evason was fired the next day, and Boldy scored in Hynes’ debut and now has nine goals and 12 points in 14 games under Hynes.
Boldy had two great chances in the first 38 seconds. The first came after Joel Eriksson Ek stole a puck and sent it to him down low with nothing but Reimer in front of him. But the puck slid off his stick. Seconds later, Eriksson Ek and Kirill Kaprizov teamed up to help deliver him his 10th goal this season.
Three stars
1. Marcus Johansson, Wild: Not long after snapping a career-high 24-game goal drought with a big goal in Boston, Johansson broke out with two goals and an assist. He was plus-3 and had three shots.
2. Ryan Hartman, Wild: Scored a big third-period goal for his third in three games, played a big part in Johansson’s first goal and had four shots.
3. Alex DeBrincat, Red Wings: The Detroit sniper had a goal, assist and four shots.
(Photo of Marcus Johansson: Bruce Kluckhohn / NHLI via Getty Images)
