Zuccarello gets assist in season debut for Minnesota after returning from lower-body injury
ELMONT, N.Y. – Kirill Kaprizov had a goal and an assist for the Minnesota Wild in a 5-2 win against the New York Islanders at UBS Arena on Friday.
Mats Zuccarello had an assist in his season debut, and Marco Rossi and Brock Faber scored for the Wild (6-7-3), who were coming off a 4-3 loss at the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday, but have won three of four. Jesper Wallstedt made 25 saves.
“I thought tonight, going in with back to back, and I think the energy that we wanted to play with, we felt like we were able to roll off all four lines,” Minnesota coach John Hynes said. “I think that line — Zuccarello might have played around 16:30 or 16:15 — I think that’s a manageable load for him. But I thought you could do that when the team played the way that they played.
“I thought all four lines, all six defensemen, Wallstedt was good in net. And that’s what you need every night, but particularly when you get into back to backs, that you have a complete team game.”
MIN@NYI: Kaprizov makes slick pass then blasts the return into the net
Zuccarello missed Minnesota’s first 15 games because of a lower-body injury.
“He’s had so many times like this that what he needs to do to come back,” Kaprizov said. He’s smart and can read the game. We just tried to help him today. He’s a smart player, and everyone knows this. It’s easy to play with him and hard to play against him.”
Emil Heineman and Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored for the Islanders (6-6-2), who have lost two in a row and had points in three straight (2-0-1). David Rittich made 21 saves.
“I thought we had a good start, and when they scored that first goal, for some reason, that gave them some momentum,” New York coach Patrick Roy said. “And I thought after that they were the better team. They were better than us, on, on, on the battles. They took advantage of our turnovers. So they played, they played a better game than we did.”
Vinnie Hinostroza gave the Wild a 1-0 lead at 7:24 of the first period on their first shot on goal. Jonas Brodin’s pass from inside the left circle found him all alone at the far post for a tap-in.
Danila Yurov extended it to 2-0 at 12:32. Yakov Trenin sent a puck to the low slot, and Yurov beat Rittich blocker side through traffic.
Heineman cut it to 2-1 at 4:38 of the second period. From inside the left circle, Mathew Barzal fed Bo Horvat below Minnesota’s goal line before he found Heineman in the low slot for a wide-open net.
Faber scored just 1:18 later to make it 3-1 after picking off a Matthew Schaefer clearing attempt before his shot from the slot went in off Rittich’s glove.
“That was an ugly one for me and Brodin,” Faber said, as those two were on the ice for Heineman’s goal. “It [stinks], but you’ve got to bounce back from those things. It’s a long year. It’s a long game. You try not to get in over your head, over mistakes, and just move on to the next. And I thought we all bounced back nicely and played a pretty good game.”
Rossi pushed it to 4-1 at 9:05, beating Rittich glove side on the breakaway after Kaprizov sprung him with a stretch pass from inside the Wild zone.
MIN@NYI: Rossi drives in on the breakaway and scores in his 200th NHL game
Pageau made it 4-2 at 18:51 when he scored on the breakaway. Islanders captain Anders Lee sent the puck to open ice in the neutral zone before Pageau tracked it down, cut to the low slot and delayed before he beat a sprawled Wallstedt over his glove.
Kaprizov then buried a one-timer at 8:33 of the third period for the 5-2 final. He made a between-the-legs drop pass off the rush to Zuccarello in the high slot and quickly received it back to score from inside the right circle.
“I don’t think we executed well at all,” Lee said. “I think we were clearly off from the get-go, and when you have nights like that, you just got to find a way to simplify things and put it behind them, and test the goalie and play a simple game when your first step off of one another or bounce off of one another, and that kind of was a consistent theme throughout the game.
“I think we were just, we were off … We were off. And when we struggle to break the puck out and we struggle with our turnovers, it’s going to be a long night. So I think we made it tough on ourselves.”
NOTES: Kaprizov recorded his 113th career multipoint game, one behind Marian Gaborik (114 GP) for the second most in Wild history. Mikko Koivu (153) has the most. … Trenin had an assist for his 100th point (55 goals, 45 assists) in 391 NHL games. … Barzal recorded his 336th career assist, pulling within two of tying John Tonelli (338 assists) for the seventh most in franchise history. … Horvat extended his point streak to four games (three goals, two assists).
MIN at NYI | Recap
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