The Minnesota Wild’s left wing Kirill Kapizov (97) gets control of the puck against the San Jose Sharks defenseman Jan Rutta (84) in first period action at the Target Center in St Paul MN on Sun Mar 3, 2024 (AP News photo)
By Mary Walsh
The San Jose Sharks fell 4-3 to the Minnesota Wild on Sunday. Frederick Gaudreau and Kirill Kaprizov scored for the Wild, with Kaprizov earning a hat trick. Filip Gustavsson made 12 saves for the win. Mikael Granlund, Nico Sturm and Anthony Duclair scored for the Sharks.
Kaapo Kahkonen made 28 saves in the loss. This was the Sharks’ first game with three unassisted goals since 2000. It was also their seventh loss in a row.
After the game, Sharks forward Nico Sturm talked about the challenge of playing back to back games. In this case, the team had travel and less than 24 hours between games. Sturm said: “I thought for the most part we played well today because we managed the game cause we knew we weren’t at our best energy-wise today.”
He acknowledged that they took too many penalties and were not as sharp as they could have been, but said: “It’s frustrating because I thought this was an extremely good road trip by our team and, the way we played the last two games, I’m proud of the boys with the adversity that we faced and how we showed up.”
Sharks Head Coach David Quinn had a similar take on the game:
“Well, when you don’t have it, you gotta find a way to hang around. I thought that’s what we did. We hung around, we battled. I thought our third period was probably our best period of the night. I thought we kind of got ourselves together, spent a little bit more time in the o-zone.”
Quinn recognized that one player stood out on Sunday: “They got Kaprizov and we don’t. I mean that really was the difference in the game tonight. He scores goals that a lot of guys can’t score in this league.”
In a scoreless first period, the Sharks were outshot 11-3 and had one penalty to kill. The second period saw more success for both teams. The Sharks scored first, 1:41 into the period. Mikael Granlund scored a power play goal with a wrist shot from the outside of the faceoff circle.
Nico Sturm made it 2-0 with a short handed goal at 4:56. Picking up a missed pass along the boards in the defensive zone, Sturm went the other way two-on-one with Ryan Carpenter before taking the shot.
The Wild cut the lead to 2-1 at 5:46 with a power play goal. Declan Chisolm had the puck but lost it above the faceoff circle. He had to scramble to get it back and passed it to Frederick Gaudreau. Gaudreau took a quick shot into traffic for his fourth of the season. Assists went to Chisolm and Jonas Brodin.
Kirill Kaprizov tied the game at 7:01. Mason Shaw made a pass from low in the defensive zone to the sharks’ blue line, where Kaprizov was waiting. Kaprizov was able to skate in unopposed and beat Kahkonen with a snap shot. An assist went to Shaw.
The Sharks took a 3-2 lead 23 seconds into the third period. Anthony Duclair intercepted a pass along the Sharks blue line and took the puck the other way to score his 14th of the season with a wrist shot.
Kirill Kaprizov scored his second of the night at 2:38. Matt Boldy got control of the puck after the Sharks lost it in their zone. Boldy made a long pass from low in the faceoff circle to Kaprizov in the slot. Kaprizov did not hesitate and sent the puck at the net before Kahkonen could get across.
Kaprizov completed his hat trick to give the Wild the lead at 15:59. After the puck emerged from a scramble in front of the net, Kaprizov had it in the clear and had some traffic to screen Kahkonen. Joel Eriksson Ek and Matt Boldy got the assists.
The Sharks ended the game with a power play but could not tie it up again. The Wild outshot the Sharks 32-15 in the game. The faceoff circle was kinder to the Sharks than on Saturday, with the Sharks winning 44.2% of the draws.
The Sharks next play on Tuesday back in San Jose at 7:30 PM PT against the visiting Dallas Stars.
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