Fueled by a highlight-reel goal from Kirill Kaprizov, the Minnesota Wild used a fast start to defeat the St. Louis Blues 5-1 in Game 3 to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference Quarterfinal series.
Minnesota came out of the gates on fire, using a Jordan Greenway goal 39 seconds into the game take an early lead. With the Wild in front, Kaprizov found himself on a breakaway and was initially stopped by Blues goalie Ville Husso.
Kaprizov wouldn’t be denied, however, shooting from behind the net and off the back of Husso to score his fourth goal of the series and give Minnesota a 2-0 lead.
Kaprizov gets stuffed on a breakaway, banks it off the goalie from behind the net to make it 2-0 pic.twitter.com/4l2vHFbX6h
— CJ Fogler 🫡 (@cjzero) May 7, 2022
Kaprizov’s goal foreshadowed a dominant effort by the Wild. Mats Zuccarello scored in the second period to make it a 3-0 game and Joel Eriksson Ek scored 22 seconds into the third period to put Minnesota up 4-0.
The Blues found life when Ryan O’Reilly scored a power play goal at 2:17 of the third period but St. Louis head coach Craig Berube pulled Husso with just over seven minutes to go and Jonas Brodin capitalized, sealing the victory for the Wild.
Marc-Andre Fluery added 29 saves on 30 shots and the Wild took control of the series. Minnesota will look to go up 3-1 on Sunday when they play Game 4 in St. Louis.
