ST. PAUL, Minn. — Despite an 8:42 p.m. local time opening faceoff due to a nationally televised game and temperatures outside being a dangerous minus-20 degrees, more than 18,000 fans still made it out to Grand Casino Arena and stayed late into the night Thursday evening.
Kirill Kaprizov and the Wild made that frigid walk to their cars before midnight all worth it.
The Wild superstar, who has been in a goal-scoring slump lately despite piling up the assists, scored two goals, including the winner 45 seconds into overtime, as Minnesota rallied from three one-goal deficits to take a 4-3 win over the Detroit Red Wings.
The Wild, who had been on a 12-0-2 run at home, won in St. Paul for the first time since Dec. 20 by snapping a five-game winless streak (0-3-2).
“We certainly appreciate our fans,” coach John Hynes said. “I think the building’s been rockin’ here for a while for us. We were disappointed we didn’t come up with some more wins on the last homestand. But for the place to be basically packed and great energy in the building on a freezing cold night at an 8:42 puck drop, I’m glad we were able to come through for the fans tonight.”
Quinn Hughes, in another sensational game, assisted on three goals for his fourth three-assist game since his Dec. 14 arrival from Vancouver. That ties Kaprizov’s single-season record for three-assist games. He’s also the second player in NHL history with four three-assist games through his first 20 games with a franchise (Dan Daoust with Toronto).
His 22 assists with the Wild are tied for the most in the NHL since Dec. 14. It’s also the second-most assists by a defenseman through his first 20 games with a franchise in NHL history (Hall of Famer Paul Coffey had 24 with the Penguins).
Mats Zuccarello notched two score-tying goals in the third period, with the first coming off an incredible spinning play by Hughes inside the blue line to evade future Hall of Famer Patrick Kane.
“I feel like that’s kind of my MO, a little bit,” said Hughes, who is tied for first in the NHL among defensemen with 43 assists.
“It’s things I work on in summer, and it’s a work in progress,” he said. “I mean, it’s my seventh year in the league, so, obviously, continuing to get better and better. But I feel like I’ve been doing that the last couple years. Sometimes I feel like they’ve been falling a little bit more in the previous years, where I’m kind of missing a lot of my grade-A’s right now. But like with Kirill, you just have to continue to get the chances, and then percentage-wise, you know, they’ll fall.”
Filip Gustavsson made 30 saves for his 100th career victory. Ninety have come with Minnesota, and coincidentally, he went head-to-head Thursday with Cam Talbot, the goalie the Wild traded to Ottawa to get him in July 2022.
“Always loud, always sold out”
🗣️ Quinn Hughes on playing in front of the home crowd#mnwild pic.twitter.com/4nQ5lMwA4V
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) January 23, 2026
The Wild next host the Florida Panthers on Hockey Day Minnesota on Saturday night.
Kaprizov was waiting for this game
Kaprizov just had seven assists on a 2-1 road trip, but the goals hadn’t been coming for the last several weeks. The frustration had been mounting, so the relief was obvious when he scored on a first-period power play.
After Zuccarello found him for a one-timer from the right circle for his 26th goal, Kaprizov immediately bent down and rolled his eyes. It was his 84th career score-tying goal, passing Andrew Brunette for fourth in franchise history.
“Well, you tell me I don’t score goals. I scored tonight,” Kaprizov joked, a reference to postgame questioning from a reporter after Tuesday’s loss in Montreal. “When you don’t score (for a) long time, I try (not to) think about it, but it’s always sometimes in your head. But it’s nice to win tonight and score.”
It was only his second goal in the past 10 games and fourth in the past 17.
Until overtime, of course, when he extended his franchise record with his 13th overtime winner after thinking he should have drawn a penalty earlier in the shift. Those 13 OT winners are tied for first in the NHL since he debuted in 2020-21. It was his 30th career game winner, fourth-most in Wild history.
“I mean, he’s too good, where things are going to fall for him,” Hughes said. “He’s been on the scoresheet a lot. But I know it’s on his mind to score. I think when you make that many plays, it’s all about just the percentages. If you get, you know, three or four grade-A’s in a game, sometimes those three are gonna go in, and sometimes they’re not. Just stick with the percentages, and they should fall.”
Eriksson Ek, Johansson return, Brodin has surgery
Joel Eriksson Ek, who missed six games with a lower-body injury, and Marcus Johansson, who missed three games with a lower-body injury, returned against the Red Wings.
Defenseman Jonas Brodin, who a league source said Tuesday was expected to miss six to eight weeks and the Olympics for Team Sweden, underwent surgery on a lower-body injury, Hynes said.
Zach Bogosian (lower body) skated during Thursday’s pregame skate, as did Matt Boldy (lower body), but both missed the game. Boldy has missed four games, and Bogosian has missed nine.
“I would classify Boldy right now as trending towards day to day,” Hynes said. “He had a big work day today, skated with Andy (Ness) prior to practice, skating now. We’ll see how he responds to that, and then I think (Friday) I’ll probably have a better (update), but he has progressed pretty well. Today was a heavy load for him. Let’s see how he responds.”
Hynes did say after the game that Boldy felt good after the morning skate, and they’ll determine his availability for the next game.
Friday’s AHL game in Hastings will be … cold
The recent callups for the Wild had to be on pins and needles Thursday. The running joke was that guys were avoiding seeing assistant general manager Mat Sells or other executives. Not only do players not want to be sent down to AHL Iowa, but the fact the minor-league team is playing in an outdoor game Friday in Hastings with a frigid temperature of minus-10 or worse didn’t help.
“It’s definitely a bit of a double-edged sword,” said Wild center Ben Jones, AHL Iowa’s captain. “It’s a cool experience for guys to play in an outdoor game. It’s something I’ve never done. You never know when it’s going to happen again. But the goal is to be here, you don’t want to be sent down ever.”
Jones joked, “If it was nicer weather, I think it’d be more intriguing for some guys.”
This will be the 13th outdoor game in AHL history, with AHL Iowa hosting the Milwaukee Admirals (the Nashville Predators’ affiliate). It’s part of the 20th anniversary of Hockey Day Minnesota. The game at 4:30 p.m. (CT) will be broadcast live on FloHockey and FloHockey 24/7 FAST Channel available on Prime Video (U.S. only), Fubo (U.S. and Canada) and Bell Fibe TV on Channel 3201 (Canada only). Fans can watch for free across FloHockey’s social channels on Facebook, X and YouTube.
Nicolas Aube-Kubel was reassigned Thursday when Eriksson Ek was activated off injured reserve.
Joe Smith contributed to this story.