By MIKE COOK, Associated Press
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Kirill Kaprizov scored for the third straight game, Joel Eriksson Ek and Marcus Foligno added goals, and the Minnesota Wild held off struggling Boston 3-2 on Saturday night.
Marc-Andre Fleury made 19 saves for career win No. 550, one shy of tying Patrick Roy for the second-most in NHL history.
David Pastrnak and Morgan Geekie scored, and Linus Ullmark made 33 saves for the Bruins, who are 0-2-2 in their past four. Boston has not lost four in a row since an 0-4-1 skid Dec. 5-12, 2019.
“It was one of our better games defensively. We played a very good team out there and didn’t give them much,” Fleury said.
Boston captain Brad Marchand said the Bruins made it too easy for Minnesota. “Will and compete is what it comes down to,” he said. “Seems like we’re losing a lot of battles that we should be winning.”
Kaprizov has four goals and two assists in his past three games. In addition to Tuesday’s overtime winner against Boston, Kaprizov scored with 4.9 seconds left in overtime in Thursday’s 4-3 win against Montreal.
“Since I’ve been here, I haven’t seen a difference in his game. For me, I would just say that he’s getting rewarded for it,” said Wild coach John Hynes, who took over Nov. 27. “When you’re an elite player like him, and you play the game the right way, and play the style of game that he has, it’s kind of what I said, it wasn’t if, it was going to be when.”
Minnesota, 10-3-0 under Hynes and winners of six straight at home, took over in the middle stanza, outshooting Boston 19-6 and turning a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 lead in 85 seconds.
Eriksson Ek netted his team-leading seventh power-play goal of the season almost six minutes into the second period, scoring off a rebound of a one-timer by Matt Boldy.
Then, Kaprizov, from the top of the slot, passed to Alex Goligoski near the left dot, continued cutting down the slot, and buried a perfect return feed for a 2-1 Wild lead.
Foligno converted a pass from Pat Maroon early in the third period for his first goal in nine games.
“To be going into the break with another win is huge, and the consistency we’ve been getting has been nice,” Foligno said. “It makes the egg nog taste a little bit better come the Christmas holidays, and we’ve just got to keep it rolling when we come back.”
Geekie, stopped twice by Fleury on breakaways, buried a pass from Danton Heinen with 6:07 to play to get the Bruins within 3-2.
“I liked the first 15 minutes of our game, and I liked the last 10 minutes of our game,” said coach Jim Montgomery. “We just need a more concerted effort.”
Pastrnak, who scored twice on Tuesday against Minnesota, scored on the power play early in the first with a one-timer from the left dot for his 20th tally of the season.
He is the sixth player in franchise history to reach the 20-goal mark in eight consecutive seasons.
Wild captain Jared Spurgeon missed his sixth straight game because of a lower-body injury and forward Ryan Hartman missed his second straight with an upper-body injury.
Bruins: At Buffalo on Wednesday.
Wild: Host Detroit on Wednesday.
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