Matt Boldy scored his second hat trick in nine days as the Minnesota Wild defeated the Seattle Kraken 5-1 Monday night in St. Paul, Minn.
Jake Middleton and Ryan Hartman also scored and Marcus Johansson, Jared Spurgeon and Joel Eriksson Ek had two assists apiece for the Central Division-leading Wild (43-22-9, 95 points), who improved to 15-1-4 in their past 20 games and pulled within three points of Western Conference-leading Vegas. Goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury made 35 saves.
Jaden Schwartz scored for the Kraken (40-25-8, 88 points), who lead the West’s wild-card race. Goalie Philipp Grubauer stopped nine of 13 shots before being pulled 50 seconds into the third after Boldy scored to make it 4-0. Martin Jones stopped six of seven shots the rest of the way as Seattle had an eight-game road points streak snapped (7-0-1).
Despite being outshot 13-5 in the first period, the Wild carried a 1-0 lead into the first intermission. Spurgeon faked a shot from the right point and sent a cross-ice pass to Middleton, who skated to the top of the left faceoff circle before beating a screened Grubauer with a wrist shot at 15:17.
Boldy made it 2-0 on the power play at 5:38 of the second. Johansson got the puck in the left-wing corner and passed to Boldy at the right faceoff dot. Boldly put a wrister into the upper left corner of the net.
Boldy tallied again at 14:59, after Eriksson Ek won a faceoff in the right circle in the offensive end. Boldy took the puck at the top of the circle, did a pirouette and put a wrist shot past a screened Grubauer.
Boldy completed the hat trick 50 seconds into the third. Eriksson Ek stole a clearance attempt and passed to Boldy for a one-timer from the slot. Boldy also had three goals in a 5-3 victory against Washington on March 19.
Schwartz got Seattle on the board at 11:00, scoring on a backhanded rebound after the original shot went off the left post.
–Field Level Media
Check out our sports section for the latest news and analysis. Care for a wager? Head to our sports betting section for news and odds.
