Heading into one of their longer breaks of the season, the Minnesota Wild looked like a team in need of a breather on Saturday. They fell behind early in Boston, and could never fully dig their way out of the hole, falling 6-3 to the Bruins at TD Garden.
Trailing 3-0 and 4-1 at various points, the Wild pushed back with goals by Kirill Kaprizov, Mats Zuccarello and Ryan Hartman, but fell to 1-2 on their three-game road trip.
Minnesota Wild’s Matt Boldy collides with Boston Bruins’ David Pastrnak while going after a loose puck during the second period of an NHL hockey game Saturday, March 28, 2026, in Boston. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson)
They have the next four days off.
Filip Gustavsson had 25 saves for the Wild, who could have clinched a playoff spot with a win but are still likely to qualify in the next few days with help from other teams.
Things started badly, with Boston trapping Minnesota in the defensive zone for the game’s opening minute. That shift ended with Bruins defenseman Andrew Peeke clanking a shot off the inside of the post and past Gustavsson for a 1-0 lead just 61 seconds into the game.
“I don’t think it knocked us off our game; I just thought they were a little bit ready right from the get-go,” Wild coach John Hynes told reporters in Boston. “Obviously, got a couple goals there and I thought we played better in the second, had a hard push in the third and couldn’t find a way to get ourselves to either tie it or find a way to win it.”
The Wild also suffered a serious personnel loss in the first when center Joel Eriksson Ek headed down the tunnel after taking a hard hit in front of the Bruins net. He returned for the second period.
After Wild big man Michael McCarron dropped gloves with Boston’s Mark Kastelic, Boston got loose for a two-on-one rush to the net on the next shift and doubled the lead when Pavel Zacha blasted a shot past a sliding Wild goalie.
Minnesota was without captain Jared Spurgeon, who missed his first game of the season after suffering an injury Thursday night in Florida. Spurgeon left the 3-2 win over the Panthers early after thwarting a scoring attempt, sliding hard into the goalpost on the play. Coach John Hynes said Spurgeon suffered a cut on his head that required stitches and is considered day-to-day.
With the Wild having four days off following the Boston game, they opted to rest Spurgeon, who recently passed the 1,000 NHL-games milestone.
After outshooting the Bruins in the first period, Minnesota continued to pressure goalie Jeremy Swayman in the middle frame, including a whack at an open net by Hartman that somehow missed. Instead, the hole got deeper when Boston added a third goal near the midway point of the game.
Minnesota finally had an answer with a little more than five minutes left in the second when Kaprizov scored off a nice pass from Hartman to make it 3-1. The goal broke a mini-slump for Kaprizov, who had been held to just one assist in his previous five games.
“Mistakes happen,” Kaprizov said of the slow start. “We tried to come back, played better in the second period and the third. It’s just the first period was pretty bad.”
Brock Faber recorded his 50th point of the season with an assist on the play, reaching that milestone in fewer games, 74, than any defenseman in Wild history.
The Bruins went ahead by three goals early in the third, but the Wild took advantage of an opportunity to get back in the game when Boston was whistled for two penalties on the same play. With two full minutes of five-on-three power play, the Wild got Zuccarello’s 15th goal of the season to pull back within two.
Gustavsson was credited with an assist on the play, his third helper of the season.
After killing a penalty, Hartman made it a one-goal game by swatting the knee-high puck out of the air at the top of the crease.
But a deflected puck slipped by Gustavsson at close range, and Boston hit an empty net in the final minute as the Bruins evened their season series with the Wild.
“I think we actually played a pretty good game in second and the third, but it feels like every mistake we make, it ends up in the back of our net, so it’s one of those days,” Zuccarello said. “First period they were all over us, then I think in the second and the third we came back to our game. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get the two points.”
Swayman finished with 32 saves for the Bruins, who are in the thick of the Eastern Conference playoff hunt and have now won four of their past five games.
Minnesota returns to action on Thursday when the Wild host Vancouver at Grand Casino Arena. Barring an unexpected lineup change, it will be Quinn Hughes’ first game versus his former team.