Jared Spurgeon, Joel Eriksson Ek and Frederick Gaudreau scored to help the Minnesota Wild top the Chicago Blackhawks 4-2 on Sunday night. Matt Boldy had three assists for Minnesota in the opener of a five-game trip.

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.”

The Wild had their best player back for the first time in a month, but they didn’t play like it. Kirill Kaprizov’s return was spoiled by a 4-0 shellacking from Utah Hockey Club Thursday night at Xcel Energy Center that continued the Wild’s woes at home.