Kirill Kaprizov scored a pair of goals to lead the Minnesota Wild to a 5-2 win over the Vegas Golden Knights in Game 3 of their Western Conference quarterfinals series on Thursday night in Saint Paul, Minn.
Matt Boldy and Marco Rossi each finished with a goal and an assist for Minnesota, which took a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series. Marcus Foligno also scored.
Wild defenseman Brock Faber said of the Golden Knights, “They’re obviously extremely dynamic. The way they move, they always find little spots, little seams, little pockets on the ice. Trying to kill plays early and not let them get going, not let them feel comfortable, is the major thing. We’ve done a pretty good job so far. And the goal is to keep that rolling.”
Alex Pietrangelo and Reilly Smith scored goals for Vegas.
Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson stopped 30 of 32 shots to earn the victory.
Golden Knights goaltender Adin Hill gave up four goals on 21 shots through two periods. He was replaced by backup Akira Schmid, who stopped all nine shots he faced.
“Just getting Schmid some work,” Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said. “We’re comfortable with Schmid.”
The Wild opened the scoring 3:13 into the first period on a power-play goal by Kaprizov. He carried the puck from behind the net to the top of the right circle and finally to the high slot, where he unleashed a rising wrist shot above Hill’s right shoulder.
Rossi put the Wild on top 2-0 with 13:09 remaining in the first period. The 23-year-old scored on a wrist shot from point-blank range for his first career playoff goal.
Cassidy said of his team’s early deficit, “We could have started better, for sure. We got ourselves in penalty trouble early. That’s always good for the other team to get some touches, and they got going.”
The Golden Knights cut the deficit to 2-1 on a long slap shot from above the right circle by Pietrangelo with 9:12 to go in the opening period.
Boldy made it 3-1 for the Wild with his fourth goal of the series. He stole the puck in the offensive zone and ripped a shot past Hill with 8:55 remaining in the second period.
Minnesota increased its lead to 4-1 on Kaprizov’s second goal of the game and his fourth of the series. On a power play, Ryan Hartman threw a shot at the net in the final seconds of the second period, and Kaprizov punched in the loose puck just before the horn sounded.
A short-handed goal by Smith pulled the Golden Knights within 4-2 with 8:26 left in the third period. Smith turned to his backhand on a two-on-one rush for the goal.
After Minnesota killed off a late penalty, Foligno tracked down a loose puck and buried an empty-net goal with 1:33 remaining to make it 5-2.
–Field Level Media
