ST. PAUL, Minn. — From a no-quit resilience to dazzling offensive performances, the hallmarks of the Wild's season were on display in its latest record-breaking showing.
After overcoming a sluggish start, the Wild pulled a 180 to blitz the expansion Kraken, 6-3, on Friday in front of 19,047 at Xcel Energy Center during a memorable night for the team and its two stars.
Kirill Kaprizov racked up four points to reach 101, becoming the franchise's first 100-point scorer and just the seventh in the NHL this season, while Kevin Fiala set a single-game Wild record with five assists in a career-best night.
The Wild's 50 wins and 107 points are new franchise records and in sticking with this season's theme, the group accomplished these milestones in comeback fashion with the Wild's league-leading ninth multi-goal rally — which is also a team high.
As a result, the Wild has a two-point lead over the No. 3 Blues in the battle for second place in the Central Division and home-ice advantage in these teams' looming first-round playoff matchup. Both have four games left in the regular season.
Finishing off a back-to-back, the Wild stumbled early.
An intercepted pass by Marc-Andre Fleury behind the net ended up as a Daniel Sprong goal 6 minutes, 16 seconds into the first period before Yanni Gourde doubled the Kraken's lead on a 2-on-1 at 10:20.
But the Wild dominated after that.
Tic-tac-toe passing between Fiala and Kaprizov led to Joel Eriksson Ek capitalizing on the power play at 16:01, the appetizer to a five-goal buffet in the second.
Eriksson Ek had the next goal, too, at 2:04 when he buried a Fiala pass. Matt Boldy also assisted on the play, extending his career-high point streak to eight and surpassing Marian Gaborik for the longest point streak by a Wild rookie. Boldy's 37 points are also the second most for a Wild rookie, and his point streak is tied for the longest by an NHL rookie this season.
Back on the power play, Kaprizov tallied his 45th goal at 6:52 when he tipped in a Fiala shot. Eriksson Ek's assist was his third point to match his career high.
Then at 10:22, Ryan Hartman took a Kaprizov pass to notch his 33rd goal.
That point lifted Kaprizov to 100, and he was beaming on the bench as he received a standing ovation from the crowd.
But he didn't stay at 100 points for long.
Another power-play goal by the Wild, this one from Mats Zuccarello at 12:03 off Fiala and Kaprizov assists, brought the 24-year-old winger to 101 points. Kaprizov's four-point effort tied his career high, and his 56 assists are the most in a season by a Wild player.
But that wasn't the only impressive feat of the period.
When Nic Deslauriers put back his own rebound just 2:26 later, Fiala registered his fifth assist of the game and fourth of the period — both franchise records. This was a fourth straight multi-point game for Fiala, who has nine points and a jaw-dropping 21 points during a nine-game point streak. Fiala's 82 points are the third most in a Wild season, behind only Kaprizov and Gaborik (83).
The Wild power play went 3 for 5, and Seattle was 1 for 2. That goal by the Kraken came 5:16 into the third period off the stick of rookie Matty Beniers.
Fleury had 25 saves while improving to 7-1 with the Wild, and Philipp Grubauer had 30 stops for Seattle.
The Wild is now on a 13-game point streak at home that's tied for the longest in team history. Overall, the Wild is 7-0-2 and 16-1-3 since March 16.
