Wild, Kirill Kaprizov stay on a roll with 2-0 shutout over Ducks

Has Kirill Kaprizov switched up his sticks?

“No,” he said. “Same sticks. Always same sticks.”

What about a new pregame meal? Or has he taken a different route to the rink?

“No. Nothing.”

If a change to his routine isn’t the cause, maybe Kaprizov’s second-half revival was simply a matter of time.

After shrugging off a slow start, the winger is back to being a dominant force for the Wild — so much so that his season has gone from outlier to ordinary.

“It’s easy when you start scoring more goals,” he said. “It’s feeling better, and you feel better on the ice and locker room, everything. It’s easy when you just keep going, easy to live life.”

Life is easier for the Wild, too, when Kaprizov plays this way.

He scored for a third straight game and goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury turned in a 16-save shutout in a 2-0 dismissal of the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday night at Xcel Energy Center that helped the Wild climb within four points of a playoff spot.

They have won three in a row and are 5-0-1 in their past six games.

During that run, Kaprizov has eight goals, including his third hat trick of the season.

“I’m sure for him the more you score, the better you feel,” Fleury said. “The better you feel, the more you score. It’s been fun. Fun to watch him go, and obviously he’s been a huge part of our success here lately.”

With a team-high 34 goals, Kaprizov is on track to surpass the 40 he registered last season and is one shy of matching the 75 points he had in 2022-23.

Already this season, he’s racked up a career-best seven game-winners.

Against Anaheim, Kaprizov supplied the insurance. Zach Bogosian capitalized first for the Wild, wiring in a point shot with 5 minutes, 16 seconds left in the first period.

Only 2:17 into the second, Kaprizov doubled the Wild’s lead by crashing the net to redirect in a Ryan Hartman feed for a finish behind Ducks goalie Lukas Dostal (29 saves) that extended Kaprizov’s point streak to six games.

Seconds earlier, Fleury denied Brett Leason.

Fleury and the Wild also had a third-period Anaheim goal overturned on a coach’s challenge because the Ducks were offside.

This was Fleury’s second shutout of the season and 75th in his career.

“I didn’t do much back there,” said Fleury, who’s on a four-game win streak. “I thought we played solid. We didn’t give them much.”

The Wild were without Joel Eriksson Ek, who is day-to-day with a lower-body injury.

In his absence, Marat Khusnutdinov made his NHL debut after signing with the Wild last month and leaving Russia where he played after getting drafted by the team in 2020.

“I thought it was a good first game,” coach John Hynes said. “We were able to get the win. He had some good quality minutes.”

Khusnutdinov logged 11:54, blocked a team-high four shots and went 6-for-9 on faceoffs while skating on the power play (the Wild were 0-for-2 and Anaheim 0-for-1) and getting cheered during his first shift and after he won his first two faceoffs.

“It’s crazy,” Khusnutdinov said. “Two faceoffs? Whoa, OK, thank you.”

BOXSCORE: Wild 2, Anaheim 0

NHL standings

The recognition was a nod to Khusnutdinov arriving as a prized prospect from the KHL, just like how Kaprizov joined the Wild three years earlier.

Since then, Kaprizov has been the Wild’s MVP, but nearly 30 games in, he had eight goals and was on pace to barely exceed 20. An overtime victory at Boston Dec. 19 was the beginning of a four-game goal streak, but then Kaprizov’s momentum was stalled by an injury that sidelined him for almost two weeks.

After he settled back into the lineup, Kaprizov started a jaw-dropping tear: He has 21 goals in 23 games since Jan. 19, which is the most in the NHL in that span.

“He’s really playing at a high, high level right now,” Hynes said. “When he’s out there, he’s a constant threat.”

Right when the games matter the most.

“It’s big time for us now, for the team,” Kaprizov said. “We still have chance to go in playoffs.”