Home ice to open playoffs still in play for Wild after 5-4 victory over Red Wings

Sarah McLellan, The Minnesota Star Tribune on Apr 5, 2026

Published in Hockey

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

The Minnesota Wild are one of the best road teams in the NHL, but they have a chance to open the playoffs at home.

After staving off the Detroit Red Wings in a 5-4 nail-biter Sunday at Little Caesars Arena, the Wild hit 100 points and climbed two back of Dallas for second place in the Central Division.

Whoever finishes second and third will face off in the first round, with the higher seed having home-ice advantage. The Wild and Stars will go head-to-head one more time in the regular season on Thursday in Dallas.

But if the Wild can’t surpass the Stars, starting on the road in the playoffs could suit them.

The Wild swept their two-game trip after they recovered from blowing a 4-1 lead in the third period by Kirill Kaprizov completing a hat trick on the power play with 1 minute, 51 seconds to go.

Earlier, the Wild ran away on four goals in the second period, including two in 1:07 from Matt Boldy and Kaprizov.

Boldy scored his 41st on his 25th birthday before Kaprizov tied him for the team lead and then moved ahead with his 42nd to cap off the Wild’s takeover in the period. Ryan Hartman had two assists to extend his point streak to a career-high six games, and Brock Faber’s assist tied him with Quinn Hughes and Ryan Suter for the most points in a season for a Wild defenseman (51).

Filip Gustavsson was in net, collecting 15 saves after seeing only three first-period shots and five in the second.

The Red Wings converted early and then didn’t test the Wild again until late with two third-period goals. That prompted coach John Hynes to call a timeout, but the Wild went on to give up the tying goal to Patrick Kane.

Not until Kane was penalized for tripping Hughes and the Wild received a power play did they reset, with Kaprizov one-timing in his 43rd goal for his sixth career hat trick.

This was the Wild’s third consecutive victory.

They reached 100 points for the seventh time in franchise history and improved to 23-11-4 on the road.

How it happened

The first shot of the game was a goal, and it belonged to Detroit.

After a clunky line change by the Wild, the Red Wings found Albert Johansson, who split the Wild defense with a shot off the post and in just 1:40 into the first period.

Detroit has the fewest goals in the first in the league, and the Red Wings didn’t do much the rest of the period to try to build their lead.

Instead, the Wild, who were coming off a 4-1 victory at Ottawa the previous day, looked stronger as the period progressed, and that teed up their dominating second period.

Only 18 seconds into the second, Boldy wired the puck past former Wild goalie Cam Talbot during a 2-on-1 rush with Marcus Johansson.

By 1:25, the Wild were up 2-1 because Hartman’s shot banked in off Kaprizov’s leg to keep the Wild’s top two goal scorers neck-and-neck.

The Wild capitalized soon after their first power-play opportunity expired: Jake Middleton kept the puck in at the offensive blue line and threaded a pass to Vladimir Tarasenko, who snuck a shot between Talbot and the post at 7:03 despite a difficult angle. The goal was Tarasenko’s 22nd in his first season with the Wild after coming over in an offseason trade from Detroit.

Then with 7:28 left in the second, Kaprizov got on the end of a Faber clear to skate in alone against Talbot and bury the breakaway.

Kaprizov tied Marian Gaborik for the most multi-goal games (41) in Wild history.

Turning point

But the Red Wings responded with their own blitz in the third.

They finally connected at 7:18 on an Axel Sandin-Pellikka shot through traffic before J.T. Compher had Detroit within a goal with his redirect at 11:14.

Hynes called a timeout, animatedly issuing instructions from the bench, but the break didn’t bail out the Wild: Only 3:22 later, the Red Wings secured the equalizer from Kane, who lifted in a backhander.

But Kane tripping Hughes later in the period was costly, because Boldy set up Kaprizov for the one-timer on the ensuing power play, and the Wild fended off Detroit’s desperate late push on three saves by Gustavsson and four blocked shots (including two for Faber).

Up next

The Wild are back in St. Paul, Minn., to take on the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday.

____