Minnesota leader Kaprizov’s hat-trick helped the club beat Carolina in the NHL

One of the brightest Russian hockey players in the NHL, Kirill Kaprizov, brilliantly played a regular season match in which his club Minnesota Wild beat the Carolina Hurricanes away – 5:2. Kaprizov, who seemed to have returned to form after injury, scored three goals into the opponent’s goal, and also actively participated in saving his own in key seconds.

After this match, many Minnesota hockey players, of course, talked about Kirill Kaprizov and his role. And the brightest of all, perhaps, is veteran Marcus Foligno. He said that with Kaprizov as he was on the ice today, it is much easier for the team as a whole, and for each of its players individually: “You can concentrate on defense, but in attack he will definitely come up with something.”

The reason to shower the Russian forward with compliments was indeed wonderful. This season has actually been a mixed bag for Kirill Kaprizov, who at 26 has already achieved Superman status. At the start, the performance was lame – not that it was low, but it did not correspond to the already formed ideas about the scale of this striker’s capabilities. And towards the end of last year, an injury put him out of action for two weeks.

But now, having healed her, Kaprizov seems to resemble himself in, say, the previous season. In any case, when he returns to the ice, he constantly creates sharpness, constantly scores points. And with his goals in the depths of winter, everything is going well. Two days before the clash with Carolina, Kaprizov scored twice against the Florida Panthers, and now he gave a completely breathtaking performance.

The hat-trick, which was Kaprizov’s second in the regular season in his North American career, is, of course, an achievement. But in this case there are nuances that add value to it.

The first is the nature of the match. “Minnesota” met on the road with one of the most stable clubs in the NHL, and they played, in principle, very powerfully – the score should not be misleading. In the first period, Carolina gave the guests a terrible beating, making 18 shots on target versus just three from their opponents. In such a situation, in order to survive, Minnesota was required to make the most of the opportunities that arose. And Kaprizov ensured efficiency. In the first period, he equalized the score by sending Alex Goligoski’s shot into the net. In the second, he brought Minnesota, ready to drown, forward when he himself shot perfectly at the goal, noticing that Carolina goalkeeper Antti Raanta was covered by the players and was unlikely to see the puck. Finally, in the final period, he finished off Carolina, hitting an empty net after replacing Raanta with the sixth field hockey player.

The second nuance is even more interesting. We are talking about the episode just before Kaprizov’s third goal. In the end, losing 2:3, Carolina pressed desperately. And it was Kaprizov who blocked a dangerous shot, after which he himself scored the puck, although such tricks, as a star, seemed not to be part of his usual functionality. It is not surprising that this act of his caused particular delight among his partners. And goalkeeper Filip Gustavsson even joked that Kaprizov, it turns out, can also do his job.

Kirill Kaprizov, by the way, was asked after the match what he was more proud of – the hat-trick or that blocked shot? The forward smiled and responded with a blocked shot: “Because our whole bench was happy because of him.”

Kaprizov in perfect tone is, apparently, Minnesota’s main hope for a successful end to the season, which for her, as well as for the striker himself, who after the match with Carolina had 42 points (18 goals and 24 assists) in 39 games played meetings, it was not easy. For some time, the club looked almost like a hopeless outsider, doomed to miss the Stanley Cup. But with the invigorated Kaprizov came some good results. Minnesota’s situation remains difficult. It is in penultimate place in the Central Division table. But at least it is no longer hopeless. The club is only six points away from the Western Conference play-off zone.

Alexey Dospehov