Jared Spurgeon scored what turned out to be the winning goal in the first period and the visiting Minnesota Wild went on to defeat the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-1 on Wednesday night.

Despite Thursday’s tough outcome, Wild players were thrilled to have their captain and star forward back in the lineup.

David’s come in and I think he’s really shown some of his very good attributes,” John Hynes said, with a nod to Jiricek’s imposing 6-foot-3 frame. “You can’t teach size.”

Superstar winger Kirill Kaprizov and veteran defenseman Jared Spurgeon returned to practice on Wednesday. Head coach John Hynes told reporters he's "cautiously optimistic" that both will play in their upcoming game against the Utah Hockey Club at Xcel Energy Center.

The Minnesota Wild are set to receive a huge boost in their upcoming game against the Utah Hockey Club. Following multiple weeks of absence due to injury, the W

January 22 - Minnesota Wild head coach John Hynes said he is "cautiously optimistic" that star forward Kirill Kaprizov and captain Jared Spurgeon will return to the lineup against the Utah Hockey ...

The Minnesota Wild are set to receive a huge ... the Wild announced that star forward Kirill Kaprizov and captain Jared Spurgeon will both be returning to the lineup. It's the best piece of ...

One of the players, Kirill Kaprizov, is the leading scorer on the Wild. The other, Jared Spurgeon, is the team captain and a respected leader in the dressing room."It's exciting," Eriksson Ek said. "Two very important players for us. It's fun to have them back out there."

Joel Eriksson Ek added a power play marker in the second period as Minnesota got 18 saves from Filip Gustavsson, winning for the sixth time in their last eight games on the road. Marcus Foligno

Kaprizov had a couple scoring chances for the Wild (28-16-4), who were delighted to get their superstar back after he missed the last 12 games with a lower-body injury. Karel Vejmelka made 26 saves for Utah (21-19-7) in what was just their second shutout win of the season.

With Yakov Trenin spending one-fourth of the opening period in solitary confinement, the Predators game operations folks waited until a second period media timeout to play a video showing

Goalie Filip Gustavsson’s 18 saves and Marcus Foligno’s empty-netter preserved earlier goals from captain Jared Spurgeon, Frederick Gaudreau and Joel Eriksson Ek on Sunday night as the Wild ...