The Wild's goal song had just finished playing when another celebration erupted.
Wild's quick scores set up dominant 7-3 win over Anaheim
Back-to-back scores from Matt Boldy and Mats Zuccarello four seconds apart were just one second shy of tying the Wild record for fastest two goals in team history. Six different Wild players scored and 10 earned at least a point.
January 15, 2022 at 6:33AM
That's how short the lag time was between Wild goals.
"The fans were rocking," Matt Dumba said. "It was awesome."
Two goals in four seconds and three in 1 minute, 35 seconds highlighted a rejuvenated return by the Wild, as the team routed the Ducks 7-3 on Friday in front of 18,300 at Xcel Energy Center for its third straight win after being idle for nearly a week.
"These little breaks have been good for us in hindsight," Dumba said. "Just giving time for guys to get healthy, and hopefully it will be the next wave of guys coming back next week."
Mats Zuccarello scored twice and set up another, Kirill Kaprizov assisted on two goals in his first game back from injury and Matt Boldy picked up his first career multipoint game.
Overall, six Wild players scored and 10 earned at least one point.
"We've practiced a lot," Dumba said. "I guess guys are just on top of it. That's part of the execution."
Kaapo Kahkonen made 39 stops in his third consecutive start in place of injured No.1 Cam Talbot and improved to 7-1-1 over his past 10 games.
At the other end, Anthony Stolarz had 23 saves for Anaheim before getting pulled after giving up those three quick goals early in the third period. Lukas Dostal had 12 stops in relief.
Those back-to-back tallies, from Boldy and Zuccarello, are the second-fastest between goals in franchise history, just one second shy of the Wild record. They are, however, the fastest two against a goaltender since the three-second spurt included an empty-netter.
Boldy's goal was the second for the Wild rookie. Both have been game-winners.
A parade of goals is also how the Wild started the evening.
Just 7:25 into the first period, Boldy passed to Kevin Fiala, who deked before sending the puck by Stolarz for his fourth goal during a season-high five-game point streak.
The assist was the first for Boldy, who was skating in his third career game.
"They tried to go across the ice and it ended up right on my stick," Boldy said. "Just cut to the middle, passed it to Kev and Kev made an unbelievable play."
Then, only 1:27 later, the Wild's top line took over.
Kaprizov flung a puck through traffic that Zuccarello directed to Ryan Hartman, who batted the puck into the net for his team-leading 16th goal.
Max Comtois' shot off the rush at 11:39 ate into the Ducks' deficit, but the Wild exited the first with a well-deserved two-goal lead after another smooth sequence from Kaprizov and Zuccarello.
With his back to the action, Kaprizov slid a pass to Zuccarello for a one-timer in the left faceoff circle at 14:59.
"He sees you everywhere you are," Zuccarello said. "It's starting to get normal."
This was Kaprizov's third multipoint effort in his past four games and 11th this season; only eight players have more in the NHL.
Hurt Jan. 6 in Boston after he was boarded by the Bruins' Trent Frederic, Kaprizov sat out last Saturday vs. Washington with an upper-body injury and then used the five-day lull in the Wild's schedule to heal.
Kaprizov, who was named to the NHL All-Star Game for the first time in his career on Thursday, has racked up a whopping 10 points in his past five games.
"He's young," Zuccarello said. "He's in good shape. So, yeah, I knew he was ready."
As for Zuccarello, he extended his season-best point streak to five games and supplied the quick encore to Boldy's throw at the net that deflected in off Anaheim defenseman Cam Fowler 30 seconds into the third period.
The Wild actually lost the ensuing faceoff, but Zuccarello pounced on the puck and hurled it by Stolarz just four seconds after Boldy scored.
"We didn't see the faceoff, but we saw the goal," Boldy said. "So we were just in time for it."
Only 1:31 later, Victor Rask's one-timer chased Stolarz from the game.
Anaheim answered with a pair of goals, from Derek Grant (4:39) and Trevor Zegras (6:06), but the Wild had the final finish: a rising shot from Dumba with 8:13 to go.
None of these goals came on the power play, as the Wild didn't receive a single opportunity the entire night. The Ducks went 0-for-1.
"The puck bounces our way, we get some good goals and it feels good when it's like that," Zuccarello said.
A 7-1 loss to Edmonton came with back-to-back home games just ahead and another injury in place, as the Wild placed defenseman Jake Middleton on IR and claimed veteran Travis Dermott off waivers.
