BOSTON — Kirill Kaprizov scored in his fourth straight game, Matt Boldy got a goal in his NHL debut and the Minnesota Wild snapped a five-game skid with a 3-2 win over the Boston Bruins.
The win was overshadowed, however, by an injury to the Wild's skilled Russian winger in the second period as he was boarded by the Bruins Trent Frederic. Kaprizov went down hard, was helped to the locker room and was soon declared out for the game. The team offered no details on Kaprizov's injury after the game, but head coach Dean Evason called Frederic's hit "predatory," and said his star wing's status "didn't look good."
Kaprizov's teammates obviously took umbrage to the hit, with both defenseman Dmitry Kulikov and tough guy Marcus Foligno squaring off to fight Frederic in separate incidents.
Minnesota is already without top players Jared Spurgeon and Joel Eriksson-Ek, who have been out for an extended period with significant injuries. Kaprizov's status should be more clear on Friday.
Things went better for Boldy, who became the 10th Wild player to score a goal in his first NHL game. It also turned out to be the game winner, and to do it in his hometown of Boston in front of family and friends was gravy on the mashed potatoes.
"It started with a pretty sweet pass from [Jonas] Brodin in the neutral zone. Then kind of passed it off to Moose there and he made an unbelievable pass game to me," Boldy told NHL.com. "It was one of the best passes I've had in awhile so I just had to shoot it into the back of the net."
"I think I blacked out after I scored. I can't tell you much about after," Boldy said with a grin. "I just remember the guys coming in and kind of screaming and smiling."
Rookie center Marco Rossi, called up with Boldy, also handled himself admirably in his NHL debut.
Nico Sturm added a goal for Minnesota, but goaltender Kaapo Kahkonen may have been the real star. He turned away 36 shots, many of them of the difficult variety, and held off the swarming Bruins until the end as they tried to tie the score.
Taylor Hall and Brad Marchand scored for the Bruins, whose three-game winning streak was halted. Jeremy Swayman finished with 27 saves.
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