ST. PAUL, Minn - In the best game of the year for the Minnesota Wild (14-7-4) the superstars took over.

The game between the Colorado Avalanche (17-1-6) and Wild was just the eighth game in NHL history where each team had a winning streak of six-plus contests entering play.

Minnesota carried a winning-streak of six games into the contest. Ten for the Avalanche.

Colorado got on the board first when Kirill Kaprizov got his pocket picked in the defense zone. Nathan MacKinnon scored to give the Avalanche a 1-0 lead.

Being the superstar he is, Kaprizov knew he had to make up for it. Despite what he said. He was asked if he felt pressure to produce after being the result of the Avs first goal.

“No, I don’t feel pressure," Kaprizov said. "Just try play.”

The Wild winger answered back with his first of two in th game and his 15th of the season. It was also his 200th goal of his career and is 114th career home goal which broke a Wild franchise record.

“He’s got a high level of skill. He can hurt you in a lot of different ways. He can one-time the puck. He can shoot it. He can tip it. Even the second goal, the first goal he’s driving to the net, hits it and goes in, and the other one he winds up where he gets a good pass and he triggers the puck," Wild head coach John Hynes said on Kaprizov. "So, if you’re going to be an elite goal scorer in the league, you have to be able to do it in multiple ways, and he can.”

With the goal, Kaprizov became the fastest player in Wild history to reach 200 career goals ahead of Marian Gaborik (475 GP) and Mikko Koivu (969 GP).

He also passed Zach Parise for third all-time in Wild history in goals. Parise had 199 in 558 games. Kaprizov with 200 in 344 games. 

Per NHLStats, Kaprizov became the fourth-fastest player drafted in the fifth round or later to score 200 career goals (344 GP), following Brett Hull (280 GP), Luc Robitaille (323 GP) and Pavel Bure (328 GP).

He also became the fifth fastest left winger in NHL history to score 200 career goals following Cy Denneny (182 GP), Alex Ovechkin (296 GP), Rick Martin (323 GP), Luc Robitaille (323 GP) and Kaprizov (344 GP).

To Kaprizov, none of these goals or milestones matter to him. He is just happy the Wild beat the Avalanche who are the best team in the NHL.

“We all know Colorado is a good team and just have one loss in regulation. It’s nice to beat first team in the league.”

It has been quite the turnaround for the Wild and Kaprizov is at the center of it. Only Morgan Geekie and MacKinnon have more goals in the NHL than Kaprizov.

After the worst October in franchise history, the Wild are currently the best team in the league in the month of November with a 11-1-1 record. Minnesota has now posted more points in a calendar month just twice: April 2022 (12-2-2, 26 points) and December 2016 (12-1-1, 25 points).

After a start like that, no one really thought the Wild would be able to turn it around as much as they have. Not Kaprizov though.

“Yeah for sure you want to play best hockey and try to be on top and you never know. You can see we start season so slow. We were down and now it’s play better. Won couple games in a row and boom jump again. Sometimes it happens back and forth but we try to play same game all the time.”

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