ST. PAUL, Minn. — Sunday night, in the Minnesota Wild’s first home game since the United States won a men’s hockey gold medal in Milan, the Wild’s long list of gold medalists were honored.

During a red carpet ceremony, USA and Wild GM Bill Guerin, assistant coach John Hynes (the Wild’s head coach), director of player personnel Chris Kelleher (one of three Wild assistant GMs), two athletic trainers, one team doctor and Quinn Hughes, Matt Boldy and Brock Faber were recognized.

With the crowd roaring and chanting “USA,” this came awkwardly with Canada’s GM, Doug Armstrong, watching from the Grand Casino Arena press box.

While Armstrong probably wanted to be anywhere else before the game, he was glad he stayed. That’s because his St. Louis Blues scored a late tie-breaking goal to snatch 2 points in the standings and leave the Wild with none in a 3-1 win.

This was not a good loss for the Wild, who had plenty of good looks in the first two periods but made backup goalie Joel Hofer look like Connor Hellebuyck in the gold medal game. The Blues won on the road for the first time since Dec. 20 and for only the eighth time this season. It was Filip Gustavsson’s first regulation loss at home since Oct. 30 as Pavel Buchnevich walked off the wall and roofed the winner with 3:39 left in the third period.

The Wild have lost two of three since the Olympic break.

“I don’t know what is better — play always or take three weeks off,” said Kirill Kaprizov, who scored the Wild’s lone goal. “I think probably play all the time is better … especially for me. You just keep practicing and keep playing, it’s easy to stay focused on hockey. When you (are) not skating with the team and don’t have practice and games, it’s a little bit tough to come back. But we have 20-something more games, and we have so much time, and we just keep building and keep playing better.”

Hynes said the biggest thing he has noticed that has been lost over the Olympic break is physicality on the forecheck.

“I just think as a team when we’re really going, we’re more in your face, a little bit more physical, some edge to our game, and I think it’s been there at times,” he said. “I’d say that’s probably the biggest thing moving forward into this week, just getting that back and what does that look like and what does that entail. That’s our job: to present that to the players and get on the same page with that and then move forward and get after it here the week coming up.”

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— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) March 1, 2026

Hughes ready to focus on just hockey again

Hughes assisted on Kaprizov’s goal to secure his fifth consecutive 60-point season, but admitted his tour around the world is catching up to him.

Since last Sunday, he has flown from Milan to Miami, Miami to Washington, D.C., Washington to Minneapolis, Minneapolis to Denver, Denver to Salt Lake City, Salt Lake City to Minneapolis, Minneapolis to Teterboro, N.J., for his “Saturday Night Live” appearance, and Teterboro back to Minneapolis for Sunday’s game.

After Sunday’s game, he was scheduled to fly back to Teterboro on Sunday night, where he’d sleep in New York City in advance of a “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” appearance Monday night before returning to Minnesota to face the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday night.

“What I’ve learned about myself over the years is you just need rest and got to find boredom,” Hughes said. “And if I want to play 28 minutes and play it the way that I want to play the game, you have to be well-rested. So I know what the secret sauce is for me. So it’s been a long week.

“It’s a crazy week, and trying to take it all in and have some cool opportunities, and I’ll do that, and then hopefully, after (Monday), just put that away for a little while and start focusing on what I need to do to help our team win. Thought I played OK tonight, but obviously you want the 2 points.”

Guerin has encouraged Hughes not to worry about the fact that he’s not concentrating solely on the Wild.

“I know it’s worried him because he wants to continue to deliver for the Wild,” Guerin said. “We’ve talked about it, and I’ve encouraged him to do this. Just kind of soak it in, like this might be a once-in-a-lifetime thing. So you get to do ‘Saturday Night Live?’ Go. You get to do all these other things? Do it. You know what? Yeah, you might be a little tired for today’s game and the next game, I get it, I get it, I get it, but do it. And yeah, enjoy it because you can rest later.”

Kaprizov ties franchise goals record

Kaprizov broke a 0-0 tie late in the second period on a fortunate Wild power play. He drew a high-sticking minor charged to Jack Finley, but replays showed it was friendly fire. Daemon Hunt got him, but because Kaprizov wasn’t bleeding for a double minor, the refs weren’t able to review the penalty.

On the ensuing penalty, Hughes led a three-on-one with Boldy setting up Kaprizov at the backdoor for a beautiful tap-in.

Not only was it Kaprizov’s 34th goal of the season, but he tied Marian Gaborik for first in franchise history with his 219th Minnesota goal. Gaborik’s 219 came in 502 games. Kaprizov’s came in 380.

“It’s good, but actually I don’t think so much about this,” Kaprizov said. “It’s nice, yeah.”

Despite getting the short shrift on the penalty kill, the Blues tied the score less than two minutes later when Robert Thomas set up Logan Mailloux’s second goal of the season.

Medical matters

While Joel Eriksson Ek avoided a serious eye injury and played on Sunday, the Wild were without another key veteran forward in Marcus Foligno.

Foligno (lower body) was getting evaluated Sunday on an issue that’s been bothering him, coach John Hynes said. The team doesn’t have an update on how long Foligno will be out, though Guerin is hopeful it’s not a long-term thing.

“I don’t have a great answer for you,” Guerin said. “It’s just kind of new, and we’ll figure it out in the next couple days and see how he’s really doing.”

Defenseman Jonas Brodin has been out since his January surgery on a lower-body injury, and was expected to be out 6-8 weeks. While Brodin started skating with the team last week, his return doesn’t appear imminent.

“He’s coming along. It’s tough for me to say: a week, two weeks,” Guerin said. “He’s progressing. He could (return) hopefully sooner than later.”

As for Eriksson Ek, he played with a bloodshot right eye after getting high-sticked in Utah by Nick Schmaltz.

“I was lucky in an unlucky play,” Eriksson Ek said. “So, yeah, it was for sure scary when it happened but it’s all good.”

The last time we saw Gustavsson, he vomited in the final minute of the Colorado win two games ago while standing in the crease. He felt badly for backup Jesper Wallstedt, who gave up a goal on the first shot he saw. Gustavsson said he was fine before the game and throughout and just got sick in the third. He tried to play through it, but instead, he left it all on the ice — and the front of his jersey.

“You feel bad for Jesper having to jump in, you know, sitting there for a long time,” Gustavsson said. “I heard he got a back-door play on a breakaway. And that’s not what you want to have as your first shot happening. So I apologized to him right after, and said I owe him one for for next time.”