ST PAUL, Minn. — Suddenly red-hot winger Kirill Kaprizov notched two goals and an assist as the Minnesota Wild kept rolling with a 5-2 win over the New Jersey Devils.
Ryan Hartman added a goal and two assists and Rem Pitlick and Dmitry Kulikov also scored for Minnesota, which has now won five games in a row. The Wild is the NHL's highest-scoring team since Nov. 2 with 64 goals in 15 games.
Backup netminder Kaapo Kahkonen made his second straight start in net for the Wild and finished with 29 saves.
"We just went out there played our game, tried to play hockey, try to create opportunities for each other and have fun," Kaprizov told NHL.com. "It wasn't anything in particular that we did, just went out there and played."
Kaprizov raised concerns with an extremely slow start following the blockbuster contract he signed earlier this fall, but those worries now seem a distant memory. He has now amassed 10 points in the Wild's last four games, and is now ranked fifth overall in NHL scoring with 28 points.
Ryan Graves and Tomas Tatar scored for New Jersey. Mackenzie Blackwood stopped 33 shots.
Next up are the Toronto Maple Leafs, who come to the Xcel Energy Center Saturday for a 6 p.m. puck drop.
The Wild are 9-2-0 on their home ice. Minnesota averages 10.4 penalty minutes per game, sixth-most in the NHL. Brandon Duhaime leads the team serving 44 total minutes.
Auston Matthews leads the Maple Leafs with 13 goals, including a hat trick against Colorado Wednesday, and has 22 points. John Tavares has four goals and eight assists over the last 10 games for Toronto.
