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Tribune News Service
Tribune News Service
Sport
Sarah McLellan

Wild end eventful day with 6-1 rout of Jets

ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Wild didn't have Ryan Reaves in action when the puck dropped against the Jets hours after trading for the veteran forward, but they played like they did.

After adding Reaves to shore up their size and swagger, the Wild dished out their most assertive performance of the season in a 6-1 blitz of Winnipeg on Wednesday in front of 17,450 at Xcel Energy Center to improve to 2-1 on this seven-game homestand.

Matt Boldy chipped in a goal and two assists, Marcus Foligno scored twice to end an 11-game rut, and Kirill Kaprizov extended his point streak to seven games with a pair of points that included his first tally in six.

At the other end of the rink, goaltender Filip Gustavsson made 28 stops for back-to-back wins in place of injured starter Marc-Andre Fleury.

Overall, 10 different Wild players factored into the offense, which racked up more than two goals for just the third game in the last nine and tied a season high in production; six on the Wild turned in multi-point efforts including Calen Addison (goal and assist), Matt Dumba and Joel Eriksson Ek (two assists each).

Mason Shaw got the ball rolling during a first period dictated by the Wild, his shot off a Dumba feed hitting Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck and then the back of defender Josh Morrissey's leg before tumbling into the net at 8 minutes, 20 seconds.

After getting outshot 16-6 in that opening period, Winnipeg had the puck more in the second, but the Jets were still outscored by the Wild.

Addison potted his first goal of the season at 2:50 on another fortuitous bounce for the Wild: His shot caught Hellebuyck up high and dropped into the net off the skate of Winnipeg's Adam Lowry.

Addison, who appeared to be a healthy scratch before Jonas Brodin was sidelined because of illness, is up to 10 points, which leads rookie defensemen.

Then only 1:08 later, Foligno registered his first goal in 12 games when he buried the rebound off a Dumba shot. Dumba became the fourth Wild defenseman to register 150 career assists.

Before the second ended, the Jets scaled their deficit back to two goals when Kyle Connor wired in a shot from the right faceoff circle at 14:18. But the Wild reclaimed control in the third.

Kaprizov nixed a 0-for-15 slump for the power play that started five games earlier just 28 seconds into the period, eventually whacking in his own rebound off a between-the-legs attempt for his team-leading 11th goal and first since Nov. 9 at Anaheim. He's one game away from tying his career-best point streak at eight.

Soon after, Foligno polished off a give-and-go with Eriksson Ek at 6:51 for his first multi-goal game since Nov. 2, 2021, vs. Ottawa. Boldy put a bow on the blowout and finalized a season-high three-point game with 10:14 to go after Kaprizov set him up for a wide-open shot on the power play to wrap his eight-game goal drought.

The Wild power play finished 2 for 5, while Winnipeg went 0 for 2; Hellebuyck had 33 saves.

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