WALDRON GRAIN & FUEL

12/14 20:03 CST Quinn Hughes scores in Minnesota debut as Wild beat Bruins 6-2 for 4th straight win Quinn Hughes scores in Minnesota debut as Wild beat Bruins 6-2 for 4th straight win By MIKE COOK Associated Press ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) --- Quinn Hughes scored in his Minnesota debut and the Wild beat the Boston Bruins 6-2 on Sunday for their fourth straight win. Kirill Kaprizov had two goals and an assist for the Wild, who improved to 16-3-2 since Nov. 1, including 10-0-2 at home. Ryan Hartman had a goal and two assists, Matt Boldy had a goal and an assist and Jared Spurgeon also scored for Minnesota. Filip Gustavsson made 29 saves, improving to 6-1-1 with a 1.84 goals-against average and .931 save percentage in his past eight starts. Alex Steeves and Andrew Peeke scored, and Jeremy Swayman made 25 saves for Boston. Playing his first game with the Wild after being acquired in a blockbuster trade with Vancouver on Friday, Hughes took a drop pass from Hartman in the opening minute of the third period and put a low wrist shot between Swayman's pads to make it 4-0. Hughes, who led all defensemen with 92 points in 2023-24, was paired with Brock Faber on Minnesota's top blue-line pair and quarterbacked the first power-play unit. Faber had two assists. Spurgeon scored his first goal in 30 games when his wrist shot found its way through traffic for a power-play tally midway through the first period for a 1-0 lead. Midway through the second period, Kaprizov doubled the Wild lead thanks to a fortuitous carom. Boldy's shot was deflected by a defenseman but quickly ricocheted off the end boards to Kaprizov who tucked the puck past Swayman at the right post. Faber split a pair of defenders and fed Hartman for an easy redirect less than four minutes later for the Wild's second power-play tally. Boldy made it 5-0 before Steeves scored off a scramble midway through the third period. Kaprizov made it 6-1 with his 20th of the season with 5:05 remaining, and Peeke scored in the final second of the third period.

Up next Bruins: Host Utah on Tuesday. Wild: Host Washington on Tuesday. ___ AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl