Kaprizov breaks Wild record for goals in win against Lightning

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Kirill Kaprizov became the Minnesota Wild's all-time leader in goals when he scored in a 5-1 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Grand Casino Arena on Tuesday.

Kaprizov scored into an empty net at 16:41 of the third period for the 5-1 final. The goal was his 220th in the NHL, breaking a tie with Marian Gaborik.

“It’s good, you know, but you always want it more and just don’t think about this too much,” Kaprizov said. “It feels good because everyone shake and congrats and stuff like that, but now it’s done and just need to keep going.”

Quinn Hughes, Brock Faber and Mats Zuccarello each had a goal and an assist, and Matt Boldy had three assists for the Wild (36-16-10), who had lost two in a row. Filip Gustavsson made 24 saves.

“I thought we played a fast game tonight,” Minnesota coach John Hynes said. “I thought we played fast with the puck. A big emphasis coming into the game tonight was more of our puck pressure in those areas, and I thought it was really solid tonight.”

Nikita Kucherov scored for the Lightning (38-17-4), who have lost three straight (outscored 16-7). Andrei Vasilevskiy made 17 saves.

“Give them credit, they're a heck of a hockey club and play pretty sound defensively,” Tampa Bay defenseman Ryan McDonagh said. “If you're looking at our game, if I'm looking at it, we really just didn't have a lot of winning habits in our game, and it's kind of been a tough stretch here where you could say things aren't going our way, but also our execution, our will to win, our want to win. You look for answers, but sometimes you got to look within yourself, and as a team, we got to work through this and start getting back to winning habits.

“We've proven we can do it, and it's a matter of digging deep and starting to build something here.”

Faber gave Minnesota a 1-0 lead at 3:46 of the first period. He skated down from the right point and roofed a one-timer over Vasilevskiy's glove.

Zuccarello extended the lead to 2-0 at 4:59 of the second period with a wrist shot from the left circle during a 4-on-3 power play.

Kucherov cut the deficit to 2-1 at 15:07. Jake Guentzel skated down the right wing on a rush and sent a backhand feed to Brayden Point, who passed back across to a trailing Kucherov for a one-timer from the right circle.

Yakov Trenin pushed it to 3-1 at 17:10. He scored into an open net after Vasilevskiy whiffed on his attempt to cover a soft dump-in attempt.

“What can you do? It's tough. You come into the locker room after two periods, you’re down 3-1 and you think the wrong team is up 3-1,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. “I didn't mind the way we played. We gave them some gifts. When you're going to give a good team like that some freebies, it hurts your chances. But we got our looks.”

Hughes made it 4-1 at 6:53 of the third period with an individual effort. He skated into the puck at the left point, cut down the slot and put the puck on his forehand for a shot in tight past Vasilevskiy's blocker.

“Just got some space there,” Hughes said. “I feel like I had some looks in the first ... and there’s maybe even one in the third where I passed it to [Boldy] on the power play. I just felt like -- and there’s also one in the first where I missed the net. So, just, I don’t know, it was nice to get on the board.”

NOTES: Kaprizov extended his point streak to eight games (seven goals, four assists). ... Minnesota forward Marcus Johansson left early in the third period after an open-ice hit from Lightning defenseman Darren Raddysh. Hynes said postgame he should be OK. ... Boldy extended his personal point streak to 11 games (eight goals, 14 assists).