RALIEGH, N.C. — The highest scoring season by a Wild player is now officially in progress, and there's still 15 games to go.
Kirill Kaprizov broke Marian Gaborik's nearly 14-year record on Saturday, picking up a goal and assist to reach a franchise-high 85 points in a 3-1 victory against the Hurricanes in front of 16,375 at PNC Arena that kicked off a lengthy road trip with the Wild's eighth win during a nine-game point streak.
Kaprizov's record-breaking point was an assist, a pass he fittingly sent to linemate Mats Zuccarello to open the scoring on the power play 10 minutes, 20 seconds into the first period.
Later, Kaprizov scored his 39th goal 7:24 into the third period when he one-timed a handoff from Zuccarello.
Before Kaprizov surpassed him, Gaborik led the way with 83 points through 77 games in 2007-08 and Kaprizov is on track to make more revisions to the Wild record book in only his second NHL season.
At 46 assists, he's just four away from tying the 50 Pierre-Marc Bouchard recorded in 2007-08 and Kaprizov is three shy of matching the goals record; Gaborik and Eric Staal (2017-18) are tops with 42.
The 24-year-old winger, who won the Calder Trophy last season as the league's top rookie, is also on pace to eclipse 100 points and become the Wild's first top-10 scorer.
Even before playing Carolina, Kaprizov was tied for sixth. He's on a career-best six-game goal streak that tied the franchise record, this after Kaprizov's 14 goals in March set a team record for the most in a single month. Overall, he has 23 points over his last 18 games.
His setup led to Zuccarello's 20 tally of the season, which trails only the 26 Zuccarello posted in 2015-16 with the New York Rangers. Of the 31 goals Zuccarello's scored since Kaprizov debuted with the Wild, Kaprizov has assisted on 17 while Zuccarello has factored into 30 of Kaprizov's 66 career goals.
The Wild power play finished 1-2, with the penalty kill denying the Hurricanes' two chances before setting up a goal.
After Dmitry Kulikov exited the penalty box following a tripping minor, he wired in a Tyson Jost feed to put the Wild ahead 2-0 at 4:10 of the second period before Teuvo Teravainen spoiled Marc-Andre Fleury's shutout bid on a deflection with 6:19 left in the third.
Fleury, in his third start since a March 21 trade from Chicago, stopped 37 shots to improve to 3-0. The Hurricanes' Frederik Anderson made 16 saves.
While this was a clutch performance by the Wild against one of the NHL's best teams at the beginning of a challenging four-game trip, the game will be remembered for much than that.
As Kaprizov darted to the celebration forming around Zuccarello after Zuccarello's goal, Ryan Hartman scooped up the puck that made Kaprizov's season the pinnacle among Wild players past and present.
