Wild put Jared Spurgeon on IR, recall Haight and Lambos

The roster shuffle came hours before puck drop, and it was more about having bodies available than about Spurgeon's health.

Michael Russo

@RussoHockey

Wild recall Hunter Haight and Carson Lambos to provide insurance tonight with no extra forwards or D on roster. Jared Spurgeon is placed on IR but can come off as early as Tuesday’s game in hometown Edmonton

The Wild had no extra forwards or defensemen on the roster, so Haight and Lambos came up from Iowa as insurance. Haight is 22 and has 5 points in 6 games with Iowa this season. Lambos is 23 and has 2 points in 6 games. Spurgeon's IR stint is backdated, so he can come off for Tuesday's game in Edmonton, his hometown. That's a nice bit of timing, if his body cooperates.

Kaprizov played and the lineup stayed the same, so neither call-up dressed. Minnesota's top line didn't need help anyway. Late in the 1st, Yakov Trenin found Danila Yurov on a 2-on-1 and Yurov buried it at 18:12.

Brian Hedger

@BrianHedger

1-0 #mnwild ... Danila Yurov beats Talbot off a fantastic backhand pass from Trenin off a rush late in the first.

The lead lasted exactly 1 minute. Adam Fantilli tied it for Columbus at 19:12, and that ended up being all the Blue Jackets got all night. Early in the 2nd, Columbus took a penalty and Kaprizov made them pay, ripping a short-side power-play shot past Cam Talbot at 3:06. It was his 10th goal of the season in his 9th game.

Aaron Portzline

@Aportzline

#mnwild Kaprizov fires high and tight on #CBJ Talbot, scores. 2-1 #CBJ trail at 3:05 of the second. That's 10 goals already for Kaprizov ... or two fewer than the #LAKings

Yes, the Kings joke is real: Kaprizov is 2 goals behind an entire NHL roster. He's also the first Wild player ever to be the league's first to 10 goals, and the fastest to 10 in franchise history, beating Brian Rolston's old mark of 12 games. He now sits on a list of active players with 10 in 9 games or fewer that has Matthews, Ovechkin, Pastrnak, Kucherov and Crosby on it. That's some company.

After that the game got ugly, and the Wild were fine with it. Minnesota outshot Columbus 34-14, Talbot made 32 saves to keep his team close, and Jesper Wallstedt only needed 13 saves to improve to 6-1-1. The Wild are 6-2-1, and on a night when their captain was in a suit, a 2-1 grind is a win you take and move on from.

The postgame talk was about Yurov. John Hynes said flat out that the kid is going to be a top-two-line center in this league. Hynes has numbers to back that up, because Yurov's faceoffs have done a complete 180 from last year.

Michael Russo

@RussoHockey

Danila Yurov had the lowest faceoff percentage in the NHL last season for centermen who took at least 742 draws (39.2 percent). He's at 56.6 percent this season. Tonight: Goal, four shots, eight attempted, 6 of 9 in the circle

Then came the travel news, and it was mostly good. Spurgeon, Sturm and Maatta are all going on the 5-game road trip. Both Folignos are staying home, at least to start it. If Spurgeon is ready, the trip starts with him back in Edmonton Tuesday, with Kaprizov chasing goal 11 and Haight and Lambos waiting to find out whether they stick around.