Game Recap: Wild 4, Canucks 2

VANCOUVER -- Quinn Hughes scored a goal for his 500th NHL point in his first game back at Rogers Arena, and the Minnesota Wild defeated the Vancouver Canucks 4-2 on Sunday.

Hughes, who was booed every time he touched the puck but received a mix of cheers during a first period video tribute, scored on the power play at 12:55 of the second period to put the Wild ahead 3-0. He passed into the low slot to Joel Eriksson Ek from behind the net, then skated around to the other side to put the rebound into an open net for his 500th point in his 520th game, making him the seventh fastest defenseman all-time -- and second fastest American defenseman after Brian Leetch (496 games) -- to reach the milestone. 

“The passion with the fanbase is what makes it special to play here,” said Hughes, who added an assist in the third period to make it 501 points (69 goals, 432 assists). “So for me, it was cool to be back here, and exciting. And I'm glad we got the win. It's obviously hard on a back to back, and they pushed hard in the first. I thought they were better than us in the first. And then I thought that we pushed in the second and third.”

Maxim Shabanov and Kirill Kaprizov also each had a goal and an assist and Calvin Pickard made 15 saves for his first win with the Wild (8-3-2), who were playing back to back after a 5-1 win at the Seattle Kraken on Saturday. They’re 6-2-1 in their past nine games.

“I just liked our push back,” Wild coach John Hynes said. “Vancouver came out really hard, physical, aggressive, kind of took the play to us a little bit. But I thought the second half of the first period we got ourselves competitively into the game the way we needed to, and I liked how we responded throughout.”

Max Sasson and Brock Boeser scored in the third period for the Canucks (2-10-1), who have lost 10 straight (0-9-1). Leevi Merilainen made 30 saves.

Vancouver started strong but was outshot 29-7 over the final two periods. 

“We keep talking about it, like we do it for a period, and then in the second period, we stopped doing it,” Boeser said. “I don't know why. You can kind of see the ice tilt in their favor, and they get the momentum and we need to find a way to respond when they're tilting the ice. We need to find a way to squash it and get the momentum back.”

Vancouver outshot the Wild 10-5 in the first but trailed 1-0 after Shabanov converted a cross-crease feed from Kaprizov on the power play at 18:33, tucking the puck just inside the post before Merilainen could get across.

“We had obviously a really good start to the game,” coach Manny Malhotra said. “Exactly what we tried to establish early. Spent quite a bit of time in their zone. Got the shots we wanted. Everything but the score was a positive for us coming out of the first and then weren't able to maintain that in the second.”

Brink scored his first goal of the season to put Minnesota ahead 2-0 at 5:54 of the second period, taking advantage of a turnover inside the blue line and a breakaway pass from Michael McCarron to the right face-off dot. He faked Merilainen to the ice above his crease, deked around him and tucked the puck in behind the Canucks goalie.

Hughes made it 3-0 in his first game back in Vancouver since being traded to the Wild on Dec. 12, 2025 for forwards Liam Ohgren and Marco Rossi, defenseman Zeev Buium and a first-round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft used to select Adam Novotny at No. 24. 

Hughes, who was selected by the Canucks with the No. 7 pick of the 2018 NHL Draft, sent Kaprizov in alone with a breakaway pass that he finished with a deke for his NHL-leading 13th goal to make it 4-0 at 3:38 of the third period.

“I don't want to say it's hot start,” Kaprizov said. “It’s just so many place where we can do better and play better. It’s just early season. Just need to be in shape all the time and keep doing right way, keep playing right.”​

Sasson scored on a breakaway shot between Pickard’s pads at 6:24 to make it 4-1 and Boeser scored on a one-timer from the high slot after a nice pull up and pass from Elias Pettersson off the rush at 16:53 for the 4-2 final.

Despite a strong finish, Malhotra was more concerned with another letdown. 

“We're searching for answers,” Malhotra said. “It's concerning. Just feel like we have a good period, we have an understanding as to why we had a good period, and then as soon as we come off of the things that we discuss and being physical and being aggressive and winning puck battles, we allow a transition team to come to life. They did what we expected them to do, so it's just frustrating when there's things in place that work well for us, and when we do them, we look good, and then, for some reason, we come off them.”

NOTES: Minnesota was 2-for-5 on the power play, including a failed 5-on-3 for 57 seconds in the third period. Vancouver did not record a shot on its only power play of the game. … Hughes and Kaprizov each have points in 11 of Minnesota’s 13 games this season. … Pickard’s first win with the Wild gives him wins with five different NHL teams, trailing Cam Talbot (nine), James Reimer (seven) and David Rittich (six) among active goalies.