Kevin Fiala responds after benching, leads Wild over Coyotes 5-2, Kirill Kaprizov into record book

GLENDALE, ARIZ. – Kevin Fiala disappeared from the action last game, getting benched for turnovers.

But the skilled winger reappeared Monday in a meaningful way, cleaning up his play and delivering offensively in a 5-2 Wild victory over Arizona in front of an announced 3,481 at Gila River Arena to extend the team's winning streak to four at the outset of a four-game road trip.

"It's always tough," Fiala said. "You never want to sit out. It wasn't fun, but today's a new day and it was a better day."

After watching the final 11 minutes of the second period of Saturday's 5-2 victory over San Jose from the Wild bench because of his mishandling of the puck, Fiala rebounded by scoring an important insurance goal in the third period and helping rewrite the Wild record book.

Kirill Kaprizov became the new franchise leader for most points by a rookie in a season after registering No. 37 in his 44th game. He surpassed Marian Gaborik, who had 36 through 71 games in 2000-01.

Kaprizov's record-breaking finish opened the scoring 9 minutes, 19 seconds into the first period on the power play when he finished off a slick passing sequence with a one-timer in front after every other Wild skater touched the puck.

NHL standings

Nick Bonino had the last pass to Kaprizov, pushing Bonino's point streak to four games, which ties a career high. Fiala also notched an assist, the 100th of his career.

Aside from setting a franchise record for rookie points, Kaprizov tied Gaborik's rookie goals record at 18.

"It's great to see it play out the way it has so far," Marcus Foligno said. "Great guy in the room. Awesome on the ice. We're happy to have a player like that on our team, that's for sure."

Before the first adjourned, the Coyotes pulled even when Christian Fischer intercepted a Ryan Suter pass and buried the puck behind Cam Talbot at 14:28.

But the Wild retook the lead in the second period with a pair of goals.

At 3:37, Foligno set up Jordan Green­way for a tap-in off a 2-on-1 rush. The goal was Greenway's first since March 6, also at Arizona, snapping a 21-game dry spell.

And then the power play added another, a backhander by Marcus Johansson off a Matt Dumba rebound. The unit finished 2-for-3. The Coyotes power play went 0-for-1.

Over the past 10 games, the Wild has racked up 15 power-play goals.

The Wild appeared to go up 4-1 at 10:29 of the second when a Carson Soucy shot sailed into the net and past Foligno, who was setting the screen. But the Coyotes challenged the play, and the goal was overturned after a lengthy video review determined Foligno impaired goalie Darcy Kuemper's ability to play his position.

Kuemper finished with 19 saves, and Talbot had 22 in his 11th victory over his past 15 starts.

"The line between interference or not interference, it's sometimes wishy-washy a little bit," Foligno said. "I think their goalie did a pretty good job selling it."

Arizona moved within a goal just 1:15 into the third on a point shot from Alex Goligoski, but that's when Fiala put an exclamation point on his bounce-back effort — scoring on a wrist shot from inside the right faceoff circle at 6:20.

"He was great," coach Dean Evason said of Fiala. "I don't think there was a turnover on his end."

BOXSCORE: Wild 5, Arizona 2

Jonas Brodin added an empty-netter with 2:07 to go to pull even further away from the Coyotes, but the more glaring gap is in the standings. Arizona sits fourth in the West Division, 14 points behind the No. 3 Wild.

"We want to go into the playoffs moving in the right direction, confident in our game," Greenway said, "and I think that's our focus right now — just continue to build on what we have going."

Said Foligno: "Right now we're clicking. I don't think we're at our peak yet. There's some lulls in our game that we need to figure out. But we're trying to get ready and fine-tune before playoffs start. Right now that's the main goal."