ST. PAUL, Minn. --- Pitchers and catchers report to spring training in a couple of weeks. Jake Middleton and Vinnie Hinostroza made a good bid for joining the ranks with their pass-catch scenario on ice in the Minnesota Wild game Thursday night. 

When Hinostroza played baseball when he was younger, he was an outfielder, after all. 

Already up 1-0 on Danila Yurov’s eighth goal of the season, a couple more secondary-scoring Wild players provided one of the best highlights of the night in the eventual 4-1 Wild victory over the Calgary Flames at Grand Casino Arena. 

About halfway through the first period, Middleton had the puck at the left circle in the Wild zone. He tossed the puck up the ice, across the ice, to Hinostroza at the Flames blue line. With the puck up in the air, the winger Hinostroza reached up and grabbed the puck with his right hand, threw it down to the ice on his stick, skated into the zone and took the shot on net. 

“Nice catch by Vinny, so it worked out well,” Middleton said. “I was just trying to get it to him. However it got there, it didn’t matter.

“That was a great play. He read it well, catching it, shot in stride. Impressive.” 

Hinostroza pumped his right arm in the air in celebration before going over to the boards to hug a smiling Middleton, who was credited with his 10th assist of the season. 

The goal was Hinostroza’s third of the season. After the game, he mentioned that since the goal came in the first period, his kids were still up to see it. 

“I was just so excited,” Hinostroza said. “I don’t remember the last time I scored.

His last goal came Nov. 7 at the New York Islanders. He said he tries to stay positive, “but it would be crazy to say you don’t get in your head a little bit.” 

He also missed 13 games in late November and December due to injury. 

“Obviously, any time you miss an extended period of time, it’s always tough getting back in,” Hinostroza said. “You just want to help every night, whether it’s blocking shots or getting the puck deep or whatever you can do.” 

Though the Wild didn’t play their best hockey on Thursday, they managed to have a regulation result for the first time in four games. No overtime needed.

“The one thing I will say is that when you go through 82 games, they’re not all going to be Picassos,” said Wild coach John Hynes. 

Matt Boldy and Kirill Kaprizov also kept pace with each other in the goal-scoring department. Boldy scored a power-play goal late in the third period before Kaprizov added an empty-netter, each scoring their 29th goals of the season. 

Filip Gustavsson was sharp in net, making 29 saves in the victory. 
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The Wild have won five of their last seven games, including just two regulation victories. 

ST. PAUL, Minn. --- Kirill Kaprizov took the ice with Joel Eriksson Ek and defenseman Quinn Hughes to start the overtime period Thursday. In the first minute, the Detroit Red Wings had a scoring chance, and Kaprizov was taken down behind the Wild net. 

No penalty on the play, and Kaprizov seemed to take that personally. If you go by what happened in the next few seconds anyway.

Hughes took the puck up the ice, reached the Red Wings blue line and dropped the puck back to Kaprizov, who wasted no time turning on the jets into the zone and blasting his shot from the high slot for his 13th career overtime winner.

“It was nice play there, and just give me speed and I just have [a] chance for the shot and try [to] shoot and it go in,” Kaprizov said. 

The goal, only 45 seconds into overtime, was his second of the night as the Wild defeated the Red Wings, 4-3, on a frigid night at Grand Casino Arena. It was the Wild’s first home win in January after a winless three-game homestand last week. 

The Wild never led in the game, coming back three times from one-goal deficits. It started with a sigh of relief for Kaprizov, who despite having seven assists in the past three games hadn’t scored a goal in the last five. 

After Lucas Raymond gave Detroit an early 1-0 lead on the power play, to the delight of many vocal Red Wings fans in attendance, the Wild answered on their first-period power play before the intermission. Mats Zuccarello fed Kaprizov in the circle, and Kaprizov shot the puck toward former-Wild goaltender Cam Talbot to tie the game. 

As the goal horn sounded and Wild fans cheered, Kaprizov didn’t raise his arms in celebration. Instead, he briefly bent down toward the ice, signifying his relief with finally cashing in for a goal, his 26th of the season. 

Kaprizov said he tried not to think about his goal drought, if one can call it that after only five goalless games. 

“But it’s always sometimes in your head,” Kaprizov said. “But it’s nice to win tonight and score.” 
Kaprizov’s two goals have tied him for the team lead with Matt Boldy at 27 apiece. Kaprizov is just too good, Hughes said, to be kept out of the goal column for too long. 

“Things are going to fall for him,” Hughes said. “I mean, he’s been on the scoresheet a lot. But I know it’s on his mind to score.” 

Kaprizov, Zuccarello and Hughes each had three-point nights, the first one of the season for Zuccarello, who scored two goals sandwiched between Kaprizov. There’s a peanut butter-and-jelly reference in there somewhere. 

A bit of a tough-luck play for the Wild resulted in Raymond’s second goal of the game late in the second period for the 2-1 Red Wings lead. But the Wild had the response early in the third.
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Zuccarello grabbed the puck off a rebound that Talbot didn’t secure to tie the game only 37 seconds into the third period. About five minutes later, Detroit took its third lead on a backdoor tip from James Van Riemsdyk. 

But only 35 seconds later, Zuccarello answered again for his eighth goal of the season with assists from Ryan Hartman and Kaprizov. Their line had seven points in the game. Hughes had his fourth three-assist night in a Wild sweater. 

The Wild made it to overtime, and Kaprizov put the exclamation point on the evening, which included a game-high eight shots for him. 
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“I think he’s had so many looks, and it’s nice to see him get rewarded,” said Wild coach John Hynes. “He probably could have had four tonight, I think he had two crossbars and had multiple looks. So, it’s nice that he was able to convert.” 

​ST. PAUL, Minn. --- Dec. 12 will go down in Minnesota sports history for two vastly different, and unrelated, “where were you when” newsmakers 15 years apart: Snow leading to the Metrodome roof collapse in 2010 and a blockbuster trade Friday evening that shocked the NHL world when the Minnesota Wild acquired superstar defenseman Quinn Hughes.

One incident was an oh-so-Minnesota moment, while the other was a Minnesota-did-what?! moment.  

“It was a good night, last night,” Wild general manager Bill Guerin told the media in a press conference ahead of Saturday’s Wild game against Ottawa. “Bringing in a player like Quinn Hughes here, you just don’t get these opportunities all that often.” 

In exchange for Quinn Hughes, the Wild send young-stud defenseman Zeev Buium, center Marco Rossi, forward Liam Ohgren and a 2026 first-round NHL Draft pick to the Vancouver Canucks. The trade news broke Friday evening with the Wild announcing the move soon afterward. Saturday, Guerin said he was going to go get Hughes to bring him to Minnesota, expecting him to be in the Wild lineup for Sunday’s 5 p.m. game against the Boston Bruins. 

So, where does this trade rank in Wild history? Let’s keep riding with these significant sports dates here. The Wild signed Zach Parise and Ryan Suter on July 4, 2012. That seemed like Christmas in July for Wild fans. Guerin was not the Wild’s GM at that time. So, now he has his own moment to unwrap excitement. 

“It’s Christmas at Christmas,” Guerin said. 

Multiple times during Saturday’s presser, Guerin said that if Hughes wasn’t available, the young players – “kids,” he called them – Buium, Ohgren and Rossi would still be on the Wild roster today, and he was completely fine with that. He sang the praises of these young players. 

Still, Guerin also said that when a player of Hughes’ caliber becomes available, and there’s an opportunity to get him, the Wild were willing to do what it took to bring him to Minnesota. 

Guerin loved the way the deal went down, saying Minnesota got what it was looking for, “and I think Vancouver got what they were looking for. They got three really good young players that are going to help build their team, and we got a franchise defenseman.”

Hughes, 26, has scored two goals and 23 points in 26 games with Vancouver this season. Both of his goals have come on the power play, along with 10 assists. He’s been an elite defenseman in the league since his NHL debut on March 28, 2019; since then, he leads all NHL defensemen in assists and power-play points. He’s a James Norris Memorial Trophy winner in 2023-24, the annual award given to a defenseman who shows a great all-around ability at the blue-line position. He’s played in 459 NHL games, scoring 432 career points. 

With Vancouver struggling, it was no secret that Hughes was likely to be dealt in a trade. His two brothers, Jack and Luke, play for the New Jersey Devils. Maybe that destination would have made sense, or somewhere else among the 20-something NHL teams? But no. Hughes ended up with the Wild. Guerin shared his pride for the deal, for Minnesota and for the hockey played here.

“Look, I love Minnesota,” Guerin said. “Our players love Minnesota. This is a great place to play. 
“But no matter what, whether you have good weather, good taxes… Hockey has to be good. Hockey has to be, you can live in the sun. You can live in these great places, or make a little more money, but if the hockey is not good, you won’t be happy. 
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“So that’s really what matters. If the hockey is good, if your job is good, you will be happy. And I think he’ll be really happy.” 

ST. PAUL, Minn. --- The Minnesota Wild started Thursday night’s game against the Dallas Stars with all the momentum and by outshooting their opponent 9-0.  

But then Ryan Hartman took a hooking penalty in the Dallas zone which halted the fast-start momentum. It really turned the tide when Dallas winger Jason Robertson scored his 20th goal of the season on the first shot of the game for the Stars to give the visitors a 1-0 lead at Grand Casino Arena. 

That had the potential to be an omen of what was to come against the second-place Stars (21-6-5). The Wild also allowed a shorthanded goal to Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen about halfway through the game, right off a faceoff in the Wild end. 

Instead, the Wild (17-9-5) came back both times to tie the game before eventually scoring the game-winner in the third period on the way to a 5-2 victory. They came out with a win against a team ahead of them in the standings on the same day that Mats Zuccarello and defenseman Jake Middleton were placed on Injured Reserve. 

“We came out really strong the first 10, 15 minutes,” said Wild winger Marcus Johansson. “I feel like we took momentum. They got a goal on the power play, but we kept going. I think 5-on-5 we were the better team.”

Joel Eriksson Ek scored late in the first period to tie the game 1-1. He pounced on a rebound in the crease after Matt Boldy took the initial shot and Dallas goaltender Jake Oettinger couldn’t freeze the puck. 

Dallas thought it took a 3-1 lead in the second period on a Wyatt Johnston shot. But the Wild quickly challenged the play as being offsides, and it was quickly reviewed as an overturned goal to keep it a one-goal game. 

Again, late in the period, the Wild’s Danila Yurov won an offensive zone faceoff, with Vladimir Tarasenko and Zeev Buium quickly getting the puck over to Zach Bogosian near the blue line and the Wild bench. Bogosian fired a blast, and the puck found its way into the net to tie the game 2-2 with 2:30 left in the second period. 

It was Bogosian’s first goal of the season. 

“That was a classic, just get it on net and luckily it went in,” Bogosian said.

The Wild maintained their edge in shots on goal throughout the game, outshooting the Stars 32-18. That marked a season-low in shots for the Stars. The Wild also snapped Dallas’ 10-game point streak. 

Tied in the third period, the Wild had a few chances to break through, including an odd-man rush where Yurov just missed a wide-open net with his shot with 13:10 left in regulation. But a couple of minutes later, with 11:20 left, the Wild finally took the lead in the game with Johansson’s 10th goal of the season. He buried a perfect feed from Boldy, his second assist of the night. 

“You’ve always got to expect it from him, I think,” Johansson said, of Boldy’s pass. “So, it was a great play by him. We kind of tried that faceoff play a few times, and it worked out perfectly.”
 
Dallas pulled Oettinger with more than two minutes remaining trailing by a goal, and for the second time in as many games the Wild scored a pair of empty-net goals. First it was Boldy from Kirill Kaprizov with 1:31 left, and then Johansson turned and fired the puck down the ice from the other zone, with the puck hitting the inside of the post along the ice to make it a 5-2 game. 

Johansson notched his second multi-goal game of the season. 
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“JoJo is having a great year,” said Wild coach John Hynes. “I think he’s always been a player that we valued, whether he was scoring or whether he wasn’t scoring. I think this year he’s getting rewarded more than, in my experiences with him the last couple years. But I don’t think his game has changed.”

Maybe December will be the tiebreaker month for the Minnesota Wild. 

The team got off to a rough start in October, starting with three losses in their first five games and ending the month on a 0-3-2 skid. They finished October 3-6-3. But a team meeting and improvements that started with a nearly unbeatable goaltending tandem in Filip Gustavsson and Jesper Wallstedt helped turn things around, and the Wild wrapped up one of the best Novembers in franchise history, skating to a 11-1-2 record.

The Wild went on a seven-game winning streak, which included two overtime and two shootout wins, from mid-November until the day after Thanksgiving. Perhaps their most complete game and exciting win of the season was a 3-2 shootout victory over the NHL’s top team, the Colorado Avalanche, on Friday afternoon. 

Injuries were an issue from the start of the season, but one notable return? Winger Mats Zuccarello. The Wild are 9-0-2 with him in the lineup this season, and he fed his buddy Kirill Kaprizov for the first goal of Saturday’s game against Buffalo. That gave Zuccarello 700 career NHL points (218 goals, 482 assists), becoming the first Norwegian player to reach the mark. 

“It doesn’t really mean anything right now, but one day when I retire, I’d probably look back and it’s a cool achievement,” Zuccarello said. 

Zuccarello wasn’t too interested in the round-number stat after Saturday’s game, however, after a 3-2 shootout loss to Buffalo, the last-place team in the Atlantic Division. The Wild had 1-0 and 2-1 leads, but Buffalo tied the game twice on a pair of flukey goals, including a shot that bounced off the end glass and out in front of the goal. Zuccarello tried to bat down the puck and ended up putting it into the Wild net. 

“It was an unlucky goal when I put it in the net,” Zuccarello said. “It wasn’t our best today, and we got a point, and we’ve got to move on.” 

The game ended the Wild’s seven-game winning streak, though they’re still on an 11-game point streak going back to Nov. 7. The Wild earned 24 points in November with its 11-1-2 record, the most November points in franchise history. 

That run has put the Wild back into third place in the standings behind Colorado and Dallas. After such a tough start and a hole to dig out of, the Wild responded well and got itself back into contention. 

The success starts from the net out, with Gustavsson and Wallstedt. Gustavsson made 30 saves in Saturday’s loss to end his November with a 5-1-2 record, 2.06 goals-against average and .923 save percentage. 

Wallstedt has been the talk of hockey lately, sometimes for his signature celebration, and more oftentimes for his remarkable statistics. He’s 7-0-2 with a 1.93 GAA and .938 save percentage, the latter two marks leading the NHL before Saturday’s games. He also leads the NHL with three shutouts, all in the last five games. 

On the forward lines, Kaprizov is putting up numbers like hockey fans expect out of a superstar. He has a seven-game point streak (7-2—9), scoring both Wild goals against Colorado on Friday to reach 201 career NHL goals. Check off a highlight-reel-worthy goal from the list as he accepted a pass from Ryan Hartman behind the net. His ability to finish off plays when Zuccarello feeds him have been a welcome sight, too. 

Kaprizov leads the team with 17 goals and 14 assists. 

Winger Matt Boldy is also shining in shootouts and in general play. He scored the deciding shootout goal on Friday, scored another beauty with his quick hands against Buffalo in the shootout, plus he put the Wild up 2-1 with 5:55 to play in the first period against the Sabres after he picked the pocket of Alex Tuch along the sideboards and went right to the net for the goal. 

Boldy has 15 goals this season, with 10 of those since Nov. 6. His scoring marks rank him among the NHL’s top scorers. He’s second on the Wild in scoring, behind Kaprizov, with 15 goals and 14 assists this season. 

With Thanksgiving behind them, the holiday season in full swing and a new month of December in front of them, the Wild start a four-game, west-coast road trip Tuesday in Edmonton. They’ll also face Calgary, Vancouver and Seattle before returning to St. Paul to face Dallas on Dec. 11.

Keeping up a pace of winning nearly every game, like the Wild did in November, is unrealistic. But if the Wild could find results somewhere in between October and November, it should remain in a good position. 

“I think that you get lessons out of everything,” said Wild coach John Hynes, after Saturday’s game. “We got taught some lessons in October. I thought there were some things in this month that we did. 
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“It’s the understanding what your game is and putting that same game on the ice night in and night out to truly win regularly over the course of a season.”

​Thanksgiving is the time for consuming traditional side dishes (the stars of the show), spending the day with friends or relatives, watching Friends Thanksgiving episodes and, ultimately, being thankful for the blessings in your life. 

I've tried to get better at stepping back and practicing gratitude. Professionally, it's a good time to reflect on all the stories I've told over the past year. I wanted to go back through my list and pick out a few of my favorite stories from the past year while working for nine different outlets, mostly in sports. 

This work means a lot to me, especially in an industry that is ever-changing. Here's the list, with no ranking system or anything special. I went down my list of work, and these stuck out to me: 

Goalie Gets The Nod
Minnesota Hockey Magazine
This was a perfect example of how a story presents itself. I dug deeper to share the saga of what happened in a Frost game when one goaltender was ill, another got injured in warm-ups and there's really no emergency back-up goalie. A fun one to put together. 

Willard Ikola: Humble Giant
Minnesota Hockey Magazine 
A tribute piece to an absolute hockey legend in Eveleth, Edina and Minnesota. Enough said. I'm always grateful when those who knew the subject share their memories and stories with me. 

Class 2A: Potato Champs
Minnesota Hockey Magazine 
The story, in part, writes itself since it was Moorhead's first state hockey championship after eight runner-up finishes. I dug into my own archives from a few years back when I covered the tournament to find a quote from the Moorhead coach for my lede. It was one of those times I appreciated being on the hockey beat for a number of years now. Drawing on past memories like that doesn't always happen, but it's fun when it does.

Bump In The Night 
College Hockey News 
Speaking of that concept of drawing on past experience, covering the NCHC Frozen Faceoff presented a storyline with a familiar face in Minnesota hockey. Alex Bump made history with a five-goal performance in the state tournament three years ago. I covered that one, too. 

Hall-Of-Fame Handshakes 
Minnesota Hockey Magazine 
Alexander Ovechkin brought his Washington Capitals team back onto the ice after a loss so every single player could shake hands with Marc-Andre Fleury. A show of respect between a couple of rivals. Fun to be there and witness this spontaneous moment. 

Flowers For Fleury 
Minnesota Hockey Magazine 
Can't get enough Flower last season as he wrapped up his NHL career. After the Wild clinched a playoff spot with a point getting to overtime, goaltender Filip Gustavsson stepped aside for overtime to have Flower go in once more. What a cool moment. 

Back-To-Back Champs
Minnesota Hockey Magazine 
Covering a championship team in back-to-back seasons isn't something we're used to in Minnesota. Leave it to the women. So many similarities to the previous season, so many odds against them. And Minnesota won it all again. 

Schepers, ‘Blue’ Line Came Up Clutch As Frost Win Another Walter Cup
Hockey Wilderness/Zone Coverage
When the fourth line, or "blue" line, comes up big to help the Minnesota Frost win back-to-back championships. It was fun speaking with players at the championship celebration, especially chatting with Minnesota native Liz Schepers. 

Mounds View’s Soren Swenson wins Class 2A boys tennis singles title
Star Tribune
Another full-circle moment. I covered the tennis championship when Soren's older brother, Bjorn, won the singles title. They wore the same headband in each match. 

MLS playoffs: Sounders eliminated in Game 3 loss to Minnesota United
The Seattle Times 
I picked up a one-game gig as a soccer stringer for a Seattle newspaper. Little did I know it was apparently one of the most exciting games in the history of soccer. That's not much exaggerating. 

Athletes as Influencers: Name, Image, and Likeness
Children's book, published Dec. 15, 2025
In the midst of a very busy hockey season last winter, I took on another assignment - because why not? The publishing company I work with was looking for a writer for their new book series: The Business of Sports. This one was a bit of a challenge, which is sometimes a theme with these books, but it all worked out. NIL has created a huge shift in sports, especially college sports, in recent years. I'm proud of how book No. 13 turned out. 

And my latest venture...
Written Rule of Sports Substack
I launched this new site with the start of the PWHL and Minnesota Frost season. I'll be covering the Frost season, and I'd be grateful if you'll follow along with me by subscribing to the content.

As always, thanks for reading. Happy Thanksgiving! 

Some people flipped their calendars from Halloween to Christmas season going from Oct. 31 to Nov. 1. For the Minnesota Wild, the stretch they’ve been on in the first half of November might feel like the most wonderful time of the year so far. 

The Wild’s start to the season was rough, with only two regulation victories in October and finishing the month on a five-game losing streak (with a couple of overtime losses thrown in). After some trick-or-treating, the Wild returned to home ice for a 5-2 victory over Vancouver on Nov. 1. 

After that game, winger Vinnie Hinostroza brought up the fresh start to the month. It also came after a players’ meeting earlier that week. 

“We really talked about things,” Hinostroza said on Nov. 1. “We know how special this group is. Every piece of the puzzle is there. We just got to put it together. 

“Every team I’ve been on, and I’ve been on a lot, every team I’ve been on has gone through something like this. Whether it’s later in the season or the middle of the season. It just so happens to be right at the beginning when we have high expectations. 

“We’ve just got to keep getting better and keep playing Wild hockey.” 

Perhaps Hinostroza was foreshadowing what was to come for him and his teammates, at least through the first half of November. The Wild have rebounded with only one regulation loss in the last eight games. 

Symbolic or not, since the calendar turned to Nov. 1, the Wild are tied for first in the NHL with six wins and 13 points with its 6-1-1 record. Their latest victory came with a 3-2 overtime win over the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday at Grand Casino Arena on Hockey Fights Cancer Night. 

The Wild scored first for the ninth consecutive game, with a tic-tac-toe play from Marcus Johansson to Mats Zuccarello to Joel Eriksson Ek for the wide-open-net goal and a 1-0 lead in the first period. Yakov Trenin later scored his first goal of the season, hopping up into the glass behind the Vegas net in celebration. 

But the Wild’s penalty kill allowed two Vegas goals, helping to send the game to overtime. Each team took their turns possessing the puck. The Wild got a power play with under 30 seconds remaining in overtime, and Kirill Kaprizov sent everyone home with 9.7 seconds showing on the clock for his 11th career overtime winner, continuing his franchise record, and his team-leading 11th goal of the season. 

“It was 30 seconds, and we just try to shoot a couple times and maybe it go in,” Kaprizov said after Sunday’s game.

Goaltender Filip Gustavsson got the victory with 23 saves. He didn’t allow any five-on-five goals on the heels of young goaltender Jesper Wallstedt’s second consecutive shutout with Saturday’s win over Anaheim. Gustavsson said it’s a good goalie relationship, and he likes when Wallstedt performs well because he knows he needs to do the same. The Wild came into Sunday’s game allowing 1.71 goals per game since Nov. 1, the second-best mark in the NHL. 

From the goaltender on out, the Wild’s defense is playing better as of late. 

“I think the big thing is we feel like we have way better gaps right now,” Gustavsson said. “When they enter the zone, we’re right on top of them. We don’t give them as much space.” 

In what Wild coach John Hynes called a physical and hard-fought game, winger Marcus Foligno also got his second assist of the season on Trenin’s goal. He spoke with the media wearing the team’s Player of the Game hat. He said the team is turning the corner. 

“Honestly, I think we can be better,” Foligno said. “There’s some times where we show that October hockey kind of sneaks in again. We’ve got to get rid of it. 

“But yeah, this is a lot better from what we saw in the first 12 games.” 

Hynes spoke about the team trying to find its rhythm early on this season. Sometimes they found it for stretches, sometimes they didn’t, or got away from it. It’s about the Wild leaning on opponents and trying to be hard to play against, he said. 

“When you do that, you have to defend less,” Hynes said. “So, now if you’re defending, your details are better. Your commitment level is better.

“We’re not really a team that can just go out and play free-wheeling. We have a lot of talent. And we have the opportunity to lean on teams.” 

Throughout some early season struggles as a team, one of the most productive players for the Minnesota Wild was also one of the most veteran players on the roster. Winger Marcus Johansson entered Sunday ranked third on the team in goals and scoring with his six tallies and 14 points. 

He added his ninth assist of the season as a cherry on top to an already special evening against the visiting Calgary Flames: His 1,000th career game playing in the NHL. 

“It’s fun, obviously,” Johansson said after the game. “But what makes it better is winning. That’s always No. 1. And you can enjoy it a little bit more, and everyone’s happy and smiling. That’s the main thing. That’s what it’s all about.” 

Johansson helped the Wild break up a scoreless stalemate later in the second period when his feed from along the sideboards to Matt Boldy in the slot gave Minnesota a 1-0 lead. The night ended with a 2-0 Wild victory over the Flames after an empty-net goal by Kirill Kaprizov and a career-high 36-save shutout for young goaltender Jesper Wallstedt. 

Johansson was recognized for his milestone game at the first TV timeout on the videoboard and by the 17,090 announced crowd at Grand Casino Arena. He became the 20th Swedish player to reach 1,000 NHL games played, the 412th player overall and the 11th player to skate in such a milestone game while wearing a Wild sweater. 

He’s also playing consistently well this season. His assist Sunday extended his point streak to nine games. Per NHL Stats, he’s only the second player in NHL history to enter his 1,000th game with an active point streak of eight games or longer; Bobby Hull had a 16-game streak when he reached the milestone on Jan. 15, 1972. 

Four Wild players have now recorded a point while skating in game No. 1,000 of their career: Mikko Koivu on Dec. 1, 2019, Ryan Suter on Oct. 25, 2018, Matt Cullen on Jan. 10, 2012 and Johansson. 

This current Wild team is lucky to have Johansson, his linemate Boldy said postgame. 

“He’s such a talented player,” Boldy said. “There’s a reason he’s played so many games. 

“He’s so smart, such a good skater. … When he has the puck, that’s when stuff happens. Even being his linemate, you get him the puck and get open. That’s the game plan.” 

That seemed to work well on Boldy’s goal Sunday. Johansson said he saw they were going to have an odd-man advantage on the play, and he knew Boldy was going to be in the middle of the ice. 

Wild coach John Hynes talked about Johansson’s consistency and ability to create situations and play in all situations on the ice. 

“It was nice to see him and his two girls before the game read the lineup for him,” Hynes said. “So, special night for him. Great to see him just keep being reliable and consistent in his game and being an effective guy for us.” 

Johansson’s two daughters, ages 5 and 9, were in the Wild dressing room for the pregame lineup-card reading. They were part of a large cheering section in the house supporting Johansson for the game. His parents, brother and his children, plus many other friends were in attendance. Celebrating the milestone is special for Johansson. 

“It feels like a long time, but also it’s flown by at the same time,” Johansson said. “It’s kind of weird. But very grateful for it and fun to share with the guys in here.” 

Next up for the Wild is hosting the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday night at Grand Casino Arena. But immediately on the agenda for Johansson once he headed home to a full house after Sunday’s victory? A cold one. And that doesn’t mean enjoying the weather. 
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“Go home and have a beer and enjoy it,” Johansson said. 

It’s been a rough homestand for the Minnesota Wild, right on the heels of a rough road trip. Coming into Saturday night, the Wild carried two regulation and two overtime losses into November. The Wild had only three wins on the season, with just one on home ice.

Whether it was the energy of a few fun-sized candy bars from Halloween, or even the fresh turn to a new calendar month, the Wild found a way to get a victory against an injury-depleted Vancouver Canucks team.

Here are five rules from the 5-2 Wild victory:

1. The Wild earned their first regulation win at Grand Casino Arena this season.

The Wild’s 5-0 shutout victory in St. Louis to open the season on Oct. 9 seems like a lifeline ago in some ways. Since then, there haven’t been a lot of things to cheer about for Wild fans, especially on home ice. The Wild defeated the Los Angeles Kings in a shootout back on Oct. 13; Saturday’s win over Vancouver was just the second time the Wild won at home this season. More importantly, it stopped the bleeding of a five-game winless streak.

The Wild are still in a tough spot with a 4-6-3 overall record near the Central Division basement.

“Obviously that stretch we went thorugh it’s tough, but this is a new month,” said Vinnie Hinostroza. “We’re 1-0 in this month, if we just stick to it, we can turn this whole thing around. But it’s going to take a lot of hard work and sticking to the plan.”

2. Vladimir Tarasenko scored his second goal of the season and recorded a season-high three points.

After the Wild’s red-hot power play cooled this season, going 0-for-4 on Thursday against Pittsburgh, the Wild took a 1-0 lead late in the first period on Vladimir Tarasenko’s second goal of the season. He made a backhand move in front of the crease to finish a bit of a broken play as Joel Eriksson Ek got him the bouncing puck.

Tarasenko added a pair of assists in the game for a season-high three-point night in his first season with the Wild. It’s his 39th career game with three-plus points.

He said postgame that the winning is nice, but he also talked about needing to feel poise.

“I feel like the games we lost before, some games we have very good moments and we're improving every game,” Tarasenko said. “And it's nice to get a win obviously, but it's important to take the momentum with us, get some rest and get ready for next game.”

3. The penalty kill was perfect.

The Wild’s been carrying around the burden of being the worst team in the NHL on the penalty kill. It was just 1-for-5 through the first four games of the homestand. But Saturday? The Wild went 3-for-3 on the PK. That stat right there is a sigh of relief for the team which has struggled in this category all season.

“I think the penalty kill gave us some life today, and that’s something that, you know, I’d say the last few games didn’t happen,” said Wild coach John Hynes. “So, it was good to see.

“The guys certainly deserve to win the game tonight.”

4. Marco Rossi gave the Wild the lead for good with his third goal of the season.

Vancouver’s Drew O’Connor scored both goals for the Canucks, the first pair of the season for O’Connor. He tied the game early in the second period off the rush after Zeev Buium skated around the Canucks zone but was unable to make a play happen at the other end of the ice, resulting in a turnover.

A 1-1 game in the second period could be cause for concern based on recent Wild play. The Wild was up 1-0 in its last game against the Penguins, until surrendering four unanswered goals for the 4-1 loss.

“Our puck bounces that last couple games wasn’t really on our side,” Rossi said. “And the puck bounces today was on our side, and I think that makes a huge difference.”

But this time, Rossi and the Wild responded. The top-line center buried a bouncing puck in front of the net with six minutes, 11 seconds left in the middle period for the 2-1 lead.

5. Five different players scored a goal for the Wild – and none of them were the top three goal scorers on the team.

Kirill Kaprizov was kept off the scoresheet. Matt Boldy failed to score goal for the fifth consecutive game, although he had an assist. Marcus Johansson also didn’t score. Kaprizov came into the game as the team’s leading scorer with seven goals and 16 points. Boldy and Johansson each have five goals.

But Saturday, the Wild got scoring from three lines and five different players: Tarasenko, Rossi, Hinostroza with his first of the season, Jonas Brodin and Ryan Hartman, who added an empty-netter from all the way at the other end of the rink.   

Brodin also had an assist, Eriksson Ek had a pair of helpers and Hinostroza recorded his third assist of the season. 

"I think that was a factor that we were able to play with the lead,” Hynes said. “I think that it was nice for us to be able to do that and then increase it at certain times. I thought some of the physicality in our game, you know, also brought us life."