Wild Grind Out 2-1 Win Over Blue Jackets on a Two-Game Sunday in the NHL

ST. PAUL, MINN. · SUNDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2026

Some wins are about what a team does with the puck. This one was about what the other team was never allowed to do with it. The Minnesota Wild outshot the Columbus Blue Jackets 34-14, held Columbus to a season-low shot total, and ground out a 2-1 win on Sunday at Grand Casino Arena in St. Paul, with Kirill Kaprizov's power-play goal early in the second period standing up as the winner, the Associated Press reported. On a light two-game Sunday in the NHL, Minnesota's defensive squeeze was the whole story.

All three goals arrived in a rush around the end of the first period and the start of the second. Minnesota struck first at 18:12 of the first, when Yakov Trenin scooped up a turnover at the Columbus blue line and feathered a pass across the slot where Danila Yurov was waiting to tap it in, according to the Associated Press. The lead lasted exactly one minute. On a delayed penalty at 19:12, Adam Fantilli came on as the extra attacker and fired a shot from the top of the right circle through traffic to tie the game 1-1, NHL.com reported, with Zach Werenski and Sean Monahan assisting, according to Reuters.

Kaprizov settled it at 3:06 of the second period. On the power play, he beat Cam Talbot short side over the shoulder with a sharp-angled shot from low in the left circle, NHL.com reported. It was Kaprizov's NHL-leading 10th goal of the season — scored in just his ninth game, making him the fastest player in Wild franchise history to reach 10 goals in a season, ahead of Brian Rolston, who needed 12 games in 2006-07, according to NHL Public Relations via ClutchPoints. He is also just the sixth active player to reach 10 goals in nine games or fewer, joining Auston Matthews, Alex Ovechkin, David Pastrnak, Nikita Kucherov and Sidney Crosby, NHL.com reported. Kaprizov, playing on the eight-year, $136 million contract Reuters noted, has a goal in three straight games and points in six straight.

Talbot kept Columbus alive; Wallstedt barely had to work

The score flattered Columbus, and Cam Talbot was the reason. Talbot made 32 saves, starting with eight stops in the first 7:08 — including three saves while the Blue Jackets killed a 5-on-3 power play that lasted 1:52 in the opening minutes, Reuters reported. At the other end, Jesper Wallstedt stopped just 13 shots for his fourth straight win, the Associated Press reported, though his night included breakaway denials of Conor Garland two minutes into the game and Charlie Coyle early in the third period, the Columbus Dispatch reported. Columbus pulled Talbot late and Coyle was denied again with the extra skater on, but the Blue Jackets never found an equalizer.

Context matters for Columbus. The Blue Jackets were playing their second game in less than 24 hours after beating the New York Rangers 1-0 in overtime on Saturday, and they have now scored one goal for the second straight day, the Columbus Dispatch reported. Head coach Rick Bowness put it plainly after the game: "The execution wasn't there. Was the effort there? Yeah, it was. We worked very hard, but the execution wasn't," he said, according to the Dispatch. Fantilli echoed it, saying Columbus put pucks in teammates' feet and made each other's lives harder. Since opening the season with a 6-3 win over Buffalo, Columbus has not scored more than three goals in any of its six games since, the Dispatch reported.

Where it leaves both clubs

Minnesota improved to 6-2-1, won for the fourth time in five games and remained undefeated at home through four games, NHL.com reported. The Wild entered Sunday with the league's second-best power play at 33.3 percent and went 1-for-4, with Kaprizov's winner the difference, Reuters reported. Columbus fell to 3-4-0 and has lost three of its last four. In Sunday's only other game, the Carolina Hurricanes led the Calgary Flames 1-0 late in the second period when this story was published, according to the ESPN scoreboard.

The details behind the squeeze were stark. Attendance was 18,012 at Grand Casino Arena, according to ESPN, and Minnesota controlled the shot clock throughout on the way to the 34-14 margin. Yurov's goal was his fourth of the season, Reuters reported, and Kaprizov's six-game point streak has now produced 12 points — seven goals and five assists — according to NHL.com. Yakov Trenin, Maxim Shabanov and Joel Eriksson Ek each recorded assists in the win, Reuters reported, a reminder that Minnesota's depth lines, not just its star, drove the territorial dominance.

Both teams are back on the ice Tuesday night: Columbus hosts Toronto, while Minnesota opens a five-game road trip at Edmonton, the Associated Press reported — a trip that starts with a test against Connor McDavid for the hottest scorer in the league. For continuing coverage, visit our NHL hub, see how the Golden Knights routed the Penguins earlier this weekend, and check the Sports desk for the full Sunday picture.