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Matt Boldy plays overtime hero as the Wild keep winning: 3 takeaways

4 November 2024Last Update :
Matt Boldy plays overtime hero as the Wild keep winning: 3 takeaways

ST. PAUL, Minn. — In an uber-tight checking contest against a Toronto Maple Leafs team that were heavy-legged in the third period after playing the night before in St. Louis, the Minnesota Wild were able to improve to 8-1-2 with a 2-1 overtime win.

Matt Boldy scored the overtime winner 2:14 into overtime after a huge backcheck by Jared Spurgeon disrupted what could have been a breakaway by Max Domi. He fed Marco Rossi up the ice, who quickly handed to Boldy for the breakaway winner.

Ryan Hartman, who is playing through an upper-body injury, scored for Minnesota in the first period and William Nylander scored a rare power-play goal for the Maple Leafs.

NHL scoring leader Kirill Kaprizov’s seven-game assist and point streaks came to an end. He had multi-point games in all of his previous seven.

Filip Gustavsson made 27 saves to improve to 6-1-1 for the Wild, while Anthony Stolarz was simply outstanding with 31 saves for the Leafs.

The Wild, who are off Monday, close out their three-game homestand Tuesday night against the Los Angeles Kings.

Leafs’ brutal PP vs. Wild’s horrific PK

Probably the most predictable thing heading into Sunday’s game was the Leafs managing to score their first power-play goal on the road this season.

Toronto’s power play entered the contest at a league-worst 7.9 percent with three power-play goals on 38 chances overall and zero on 18 chances on the road.

The problem for the Wild? Despite vowing to repair their 30th-ranked penalty kill from a year ago that finished at a ghastly 74.5 percent, the Wild have continued to bleed power-play goals against this season. They entered the contest having allowed seven goals on 21 chances (66.7 percent).

Well, after having firm control of the first period with a 1-0 lead and 10-2 shot advantage, Kaprizov and Rossi took back-to-back penalties. Just like the game in Pittsburgh last week when Rossi took a penalty right after Jon Merrill, the Wild easily killed the first one again but couldn’t kill the second.

After Auston Matthews pickpocketed Kaprizov, Mitch Marner walked Rossi and drew a hooking minor. That put the Wild’s penalty kill right back onto the ice and Matthews connected with Nylander for the star’s ninth goal to tie it by period’s end.

Wild second line getting bottled up

The Wild’s second line of Marcus Johansson–Joel Eriksson Ek-Boldy have been getting bottled up at five-on-five in several games of late. There have been instances of the the trio getting hemmed in their own end since the first of two Tampa Bay meetings five games ago. Conversely, they are not scoring at five-on-five.

At some point, John Hynes may have to look at breaking the three up, perhaps even just flipping centers and popping Eriksson Ek up to the Kaprizov-Mats Zuccarello line and Rossi down to the second.

Or find a new left wing.

In his past nine games, Johansson has just one goal and no assists. That’s pretty hard to do playing alongside Eriksson Ek and Boldy.

Wild’s No. 1 power play in a funk

After not being able to convert on a pair of abbreviated five-on-threes in Pittsburgh, the Wild’s No. 1 unit had a chance to break open a 1-1 game at the end of the second period and start of the third after Oliver Ekman-Larsson took a cross-checking minor, then began repeatedly punching Rossi in the head while he was defenseless on the ice.

But on the double minor, the Wild’s first unit of Kaprizov, Eriksson Ek, Zuccarello, Boldy and Brock Faber, which spent the majority of the time on the ice, was shut out for the 10th time in the past three games. They had 1:36 of carryover time in the third period and couldn’t even muster up a shot on goal.

(Photo: Brace Hemmelgarn / Imagn Images)

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