Off to a hot start, the Minnesota Wild are still a long way from any real accomplishments. They don’t hang banners for having a better-than-expected October. But after opening November with an impressive win, the Wild can at least claim to have won the Florida state championship for 2024-25. Trailing early, the Wild erased the deficit and Kirill Kaprizov posted a pair of dramatic goals in the third period, producing a 5-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Friday, and improving to 3-0-0 this season versus teams from the Sunshine State. The team-leading sixth and seventh goals of the season for Kaprizov, who earlier on Friday was named one of the NHL’s three stars for October, were the difference-makers. Tacking on a second-period assist and a helper on Matt Boldy’s empty-net goal, Kaprizov is averaging better than two points per game for the Wild. The Wild were playing before a friendly audience for just the third time this season, having gone 5-1-1 on their recent extended road swing. And their coach thinks keeping an even keel, whether leading or trailing, is the key. “We’re not riding a wave of emotion. It’s understanding how we need to play, that there’s going to be good things, you don’t need to get too high,” coach John Hynes said. “I think there’s going to be times where you hit adversity, you’re not going to get too low. It’s about doing the right things and the next one. I think it’s no different. Things are going really well for us in the win column and finding ways to win games.” The bigger story early on may have been goalie Filip Gustavsson, who allowed a first-period, power-play goal on a rebound but kept the powerful Lightning attackers off the board despite several point-blank chances, finishing with 28 saves. “Gus did a tremendous job weathering the storm there. Some of those first periods when you get back from a long road trip can be a little flat, and it was for us, but thankfully Gus was on his toes early,” Wild defenseman Jake Middleton said. “Then a big pushback from us in the second, starting with our big dogs coming out on the first shift and getting a goal. On Friday afternoon, Lightning coach Jon Cooper gave the Wild credit for their recent swing through Florida, which included a thorough spanking of the defending Stanley Cup champ Panthers and a come-from-behind 4-2 win in Tampa. Determined not to get fooled again, the visitors burst from the starting gate on Friday, outshooting Minnesota 12-2 at one point and taking a lead into the first Zamboni break. After not trailing for the first six games of the season, it was the third consecutive contest where Minnesota surrendered the game’s first goal. But the deficit was short-lived after Joel Eriksson Ek got his fifth of the season in the opening minute of the second period. Then things got weird. Marco Rossi, battling hard for a breakaway, shot wide of the Tampa net, but skating behind the Lightning goal, there was somehow a second puck on the ice. While play continued, Rossi popped the bonus puck between goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy’s skates for what sharp-eyed fans at that end of the rink thought was a goal. It was later determined that a puck shot by Kaprizov one shift earlier, that officials thought had gone out of play, instead had landed just behind the Lightning net, with nobody on the ice noticing until Rossi played it. Finally, officials blew the play dead and determined two things: 1, no goal, and 2, the rest of the game would be played with just one puck, per long-accepted NHL norms. “It’s funny because when the puck went in, I didn’t know what everyone was cheering about because I was following the real puck,” Hynes said, admitting that he’s never seen two pucks on the ice in a game previously. “I thought we had a sixth man on the ice from the stands.” After Brock Faber’s second goal of the season gave the Wild their first lead, captain Jared Spurgeon went to the box for slashing and another Lightning power-play goal – this one from Woodbury product Jake Guentzel – produced a 2-2 tie. Kaprizov’s go-ahead goal came after a long shot slipped through the Lightning goalie just long enough for Rossi to push the loose puck back into the crease. There it hit off Kaprizov’s stick and into the net. Trailing by two after Boldy’s empty-netter, the Lightning got an extra-attacker goal, but Kaprizov added a second goal with Vasilevskiy on the bench for the final margin. “Do I think that we deserved some points out of this game? I do,” Cooper said. “I thought we deserved points the first time we played them. They end up getting four. We get zero. And you look at it, there were so many good things that happened on our side for the game, but timing is everything.” Vasilevskiy had 17 saves and is stuck on 299 career wins. Related Articles Minnesota Wild | Faber does what’s necessary, even if its fighting for first time in his career Minnesota Wild | Wild return from longest road trip near top of Western Conference Minnesota Wild | Wild’s Freddy Gaudreau finding his typical game Minnesota Wild | Marc-Andre Fleury, Wild leave a mark in Pittsburgh Minnesota Wild | Wild captain Jared Spurgeon returns against Penguins