BOSTON — The Wild have earned some impressive victories since ending a seven-game losing streak and beginning play under new coach John Hynes.
Right out of the gate, they drilled four straight opponents for their first four-game winning streak of the season. They shut out Seattle on the road, and earned back-to-back shootout victories over Calgary and Vancouver without two injured blue line leaders.
But Tuesday’s 3-2 victory over the Boston Bruins at TD Garden might have been their most impressive performance since Hynes began coaching the team on Nov. 28.
Kirill Kaprizov scored twice, tying the game then winning it when he finished a three-on-one with an overtime goal as the Wild rallied from a 2-1 third-period deficit to beat the Atlantic Division leaders, 4-3, Tuesday at TD Garden.
Ryan Hartman scored the go-ahead goal with 4:50 to play before a penalty derailed the Wild’s momentum and Brad Marchand tied the score with 1:06 remaining.
The Bruins, on a power play with Alex Goligoski in the box for high sticking, pulled Linus Ullmark for a six-on-four advantage and Brad Marchand tied the game, 3-3, with 1:06 remaining to send the game to overtime.
Marc-Andre Fleury was magnificent, outdueling Linus Ullmark in just his second start since Dec. 8, stopping 40 of 43 of shots.
David Pastrnak scored twice, and Ullmark made 28 saves for Boston.
The Wild were up against it when the puck dropped, without Jonas Brodin and Jared Spurgeon on the blue line, and points-leader Mats Zuccarello on the top line. Still, they played a strong game, even after losing Pat Maroon for 10 minutes on a game misconduct, which threw their lines into disarray as they gutted out a scoreless second period.
And even after losing winger Vinni Lettieri, injured after taking a shot off his left ankle.
Johansson scored his second goal in 30 games — and his first since Oct. 21 — to put the Wild up early. With Jake DeBrusk in the box for slashing the stick out of Matt Boldy’s hands, Johansson pounced on a rebound — from Freddy Gaudreau’s shot — and sliced it past Ullmark at 7:44.
The Bruins tied the score when John Beecher intercepted a Johansson pass back to the defenseman and raced forward along the boards to create a two-on-one with Pastrnak, who took his pass and scored top shelf to tie the game 1-1 at 11:29.
With seconds left on the clock in the first period, the Bruins started a rush that resulted in Pastrnak’s second goal. With the teams scrambling, Pavel Zacha sent a pass across the slot with 2.4 seconds left. Pastrnak gathered and set a wrist shot behind a diving Fleury to make it 2-1 with 0.4 seconds on the clock.
Just more than 6 minutes into the second period, Maroon picked a fight with Parker Wotherspoon, who had just delivered a big check on Johansson. Each was assessed 5 minutes for fighting, but Maroon was given an instigator minor and game misconduct. That left the Wild scrambling with its lines for the rest of the period.
Still, Minnesota held court, and came out strong in the third period.
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