Matt Boldy recorded his fifth career hat trick and added an assist as the Minnesota Wild withstood a late St. Louis Blues push for a 5-4 victory Thursday night at Grand Casino Arena.
The Wild (5-2-1) built a 5-2 lead by the end of the second period before the Blues (3-3-1) scored twice in the third. Robert Thomas pulled St. Louis within 5-3 on a short-handed goal at 16:00, and Dylan Holloway made it 5-4 with 15 seconds remaining. The comeback fell short as Minnesota held on.
Boldy paced the Wild with three goals and an assist. He tied the game 1-1 on a power-play one-timer during a 5-on-3 in the first period, scored again early in the second to restore Minnesota’s lead, and completed the hat trick late in the second on a one-timer from the left circle. Kirill Kaprizov added a goal and two assists, while Quinn Hughes and Joel Eriksson Ek each had two assists. Danila Yurov also scored for Minnesota. Jesper Wallstedt stopped 21 of 25 shots.
For the Blues, Jonatan Berggren opened the scoring on a power-play backhand just 1:45 into the game. Mason McTavish tied it 2-2 early in the second before Minnesota answered. Cam Fowler recorded three assists, and Thomas added an assist to go with his short-handed goal. Joel Hofer made 33 saves on 38 shots.
The Wild outshot the Blues 38-25 and converted one of five power-play chances while St. Louis went 1-for-2. Minnesota has now won three of its last four games.
The loss ended a three-game point streak (2-0-1) for the Blues, who were without Pavel Buchnevich (paternity leave) and continued to deal with other forward injuries.
