Visiting a desperate Detroit team on Easter Sunday, the Minnesota Wild built a big lead, saw it slip away, then found a much-needed pair of standings points, anyway.
Kirill Kaprizov completed his hat trick on a power play with less than two minutes to play, lifting Minnesota to a 5-4 win and pulling the Wild back into contention for home ice in the playoffs.
Minnesota Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson (32) stops a Detroit Red Wings center Marco Kasper (92) shot in the second period of an NHL hockey game Sunday, April 5, 2026, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Vladimir Tarasenko and Matt Boldy scored in a four-goal second period as Minnesota dented Detroit’s tenuous chances for an Eastern Conference playoff spot. The Wild, who have won four of their past five, got 18 saves from Filip Gustavsson in sweeping the two-game season series with Detroit.
Wild coach John Hynes said the win, after losing a big lead, was an important pre-playoff experience.
“We have not had that situation where we’ve lost momentum like that for that long of a stretch in a period. So to me, I’m glad it happened. Because I think there’s things we can take from that moving forward, which is really important,” Hynes said to reporters outside the visitors’ locker room in Detroit.
With the win, the Wild moved within two points of tying Dallas for second place in the Central Division. They face the Stars head-to-head on Thursday in Texas in a game that will help determine which team gets home ice advantage in Round 1 of the NHL playoffs.
“The third period, they obviously had a push like their life depended on it, because it does,” said Wild defenseman Brock Faber, who tied the team record for assists in a season by a blueliner at 51 via a second period helper. “It’s obviously hard to weather at times. I don’t think we played our best, and they were obviously playing their best because they need to. A win’s a win.”
Plagued by slow starts this season, the Red Wings solved that problem 100 seconds into the game when Detroit’s first shot on goal eluded Gustavsson on the glove side and caromed off the inside of the goalpost, igniting an afternoon audience at Little Caesars Arena.
Minnesota outshot the Wings 6-3 in the first period but Detroit’s first shot was the only one that counted.
The Wild countered forcefully on the opening shift of the middle frame. Boldy, celebrating his 25th birthday on Sunday, got the puck in the neutral zone and came up the ice where he ripped his team-leading 41st goal of the season to forge a tie.
Boldy’s spot atop the Wild scoring chart lasted barely a minute, as Kaprizov deflected a Ryan Hartman shot past the goalie for his own 41st goal and the visitors’ first lead.
After Minnesota killed the game’s first penalty, Quinn Hughes was slashed on a rush to the net-front, giving the Wild their first man advantage. Detroit’s penalty-killers kept the Wild off the board for the next two minutes, but the teams had been back to 5-on-5 for just six seconds when Tarasenko hit a tiny gap over the goalie’s shoulder for a 3-1 Minnesota lead.
Kaprizov found that productive gap over the goalie’s shoulder himself later in the second, scoring his second of the game to take back the team goals lead. It was the first four-goal period of the season for the Wild.
“I feel like we played the second period pretty good. Especially start from the first shift, Bolds scored, and then everyone keeps going, scored a couple more,” Kaprizov said. “Then in the third period I felt like a little bit it wasn’t too hard on pucks, lose some battles and Detroit comes back. But it’s nice to win. Nice to take two points.”
Detroit got a pair of long-range pucks through the crowd in front of Gustavsson in the middle of the third to pull the home team back within a goal, and after a Wild timeout to try and calm the waters, the Red Wings tied it when veteran Patrick Kane chipped a puck past Gustavsson.
But with Kane in the penalty box, Kaprizov took a setup pass from Boldy and blasted home the game-winner, completing his sixth career regular-season three-goal game.
“That’s the guy that we want to have the puck and we want shooting,” Boldy said. “We want to win. You see it every night.”
Detroit goalie Cam Talbot, who played 82 games for the Wild over the course of two seasons earlier in his career, was making just his third start since the Olympic break. He had 15 saves for the Red Wings.
The Wild are back at Grand Casino Arena on Tuesday evening for one of their two remaining regular-season home games. Minnesota hosts the Seattle Kraken at 7 p.m. CDT.
Briefly
The Wild were without veteran defenseman Zach Bogosian in Detroit after he left Saturday’s win in Ottawa early in the third period and did not return. Bogosian is listed as day to day with a lower body injury. Sunday’s game was the 34th he has missed this season due to injury. He has been a healthy scratch twice. Michigan native Jeff Petry got a chance to play in his home state, taking Bogosian’s spot on the blue line. … The Wild’s win clinched a playoff spot for the Montreal Canadiens in the East.