Kirill Kaprizov Nets 10th Goal as Wild Beat Blue Jackets

Kirill Kaprizov is already at 10 goals. His power-play snipe at 3:06 of the second period, a sharp-angle shot from low in the left circle that beat Cam Talbot short side over the shoulder, held up as the winner in the Minnesota Wild's 2-1 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Sunday night at Grand Casino Arena.

That is the NHL lead, nine games into the season, and it made Kaprizov the fastest player in Wild history to 10 goals. Brian Rolston held the old mark, 12 games in 2006-07.

Kaprizov Joins a Short List

NHL.com notes Kaprizov is only the sixth active player to reach 10 goals in nine games or fewer in a season. The others are Auston Matthews, Alex Ovechkin, David Pastrnak, Nikita Kucherov and Sidney Crosby. That is the company he is keeping in October.

He has points in six straight games, with seven goals and five assists in that run, and he was in on a game-winning goal for the 78th time in his career, passing Marian Gaborik for third in franchise history behind Mikko Koivu and Zach Parise. Joel Eriksson Ek picked up his 200th career assist on the winner. Kaprizov also has a goal in each of his last four games against Columbus.

"I feel like first couple games it was a little bit tough," Kaprizov said. "But then after two, three, four games, feel better a little bit now." Talbot had a simpler review: "He put it in a great spot."

The Wild Smothered Columbus

Danila Yurov opened the scoring at 18:12 of the first, finishing a Yakov Trenin feed on an odd-man rush for his fourth goal of the season. Adam Fantilli answered a minute later with Columbus skating 6-on-5 on a delayed penalty, and that was it for the Blue Jackets.

Minnesota held them to 14 shots, tied for the second-fewest the Wild have ever allowed in a game. Jesper Wallstedt stopped 13 for his sixth win, and Talbot kept it close with 32 saves at the other end. Matt Boldy had a game-high six shots, and his 41 on the season rank second in the league.

The Wild are 6-2-1 and 4-0 at home, and they have a power-play goal in eight of their nine games. Columbus, on the second night of a back-to-back, fell to 3-4-0. If you drafted Kaprizov in fantasy, enjoy the ride.

Up Next

Minnesota starts a four-game road trip Tuesday in Edmonton (9 p.m. ET), then heads to Calgary, Seattle and Vancouver. Kaprizov against Connor McDavid at Rogers Place is a pretty good way to find out if this goal pace is for real.