EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — Matt Boldy scored a twice as the Minnesota Wild beat the Edmonton Oilers 4-2 on Friday night.
Jonas Brodin and Mats Zuccarello also scored for the Wild, who are 6-1-1 in their last eight games. Filip Gustavsson stopped 41 shots to help Minnesota pull two points behind St. Louis for the second wild card in the Western Conference.
“We needed to get the job done and play well and I thought we played well tonight,” Boldy said. “There was a little bit of a lull in the second period, but you expect that against a team like this and the guys that they have.
“It was a whole team effort, it was nice.”
Leon Draisaitl and Zach Hyman had goals for the Oilers, who have lost two in a row but are 28-7-1 in their last 36 games. Calvin Pickard finished with 16 saves.
The Wild appeared to get on the scoreboard about seven minutes into the game on a snipe by Joel Eriksson Ek, but the goal was waved off for offside after a video review.
Minnesota made it 1-0 with 23 seconds left in the first when Boldy cut into the middle and fired a wrist shot that ticked off Pickard's goalie and in for his 21st of the season. Eriksson Ek picked up an assist to extend his points streak to seven games.
“I liked the start of the game, I thought we played the way we wanted to play,” Minnesota coach John Hynes said. “I thought in the second half of the second period we got away from it a little bit. I thought they were better in the third period than we were, but we found a way to put the puck in the net at key times and we got some key saves.”
Edmonton tied it with a power-play goal with 9:33 left in the second as Connor McDavid sent a backhand pass to Draisaitl, who beat Wild Gustavsson short side with his patented one-timer from the right wing for his 28th. Draisaitl got his 284th career power-play point, moving past Mark Messier for sole possession of third place in franchise history
McDavid extended his home-game point streak to 21 games on the play, tying his personal best set last year.
The Oilers came close to getting another one six minutes later when Mattias Ekholm flipped a puck from behind the goal-line that snuck behind Gustavsson and sat in the crease, but Declan Chisholm put it into his pads after almost poking it in himself.
“Credit to us for getting ourselves going there in the second,” McDavid said. “We were able to generate a little bit ... and the PK helped with that.”
The Wild retook the lead 9:31 into the third as Brodin stepped in from the point and fired a shot past Pickard for his fifth. Kirill Kaprizov extended his points streak to seven games with an assist.
Minnesota went up 3-1 with 7:43 left as Edmonton turned the puck over and Boldy showed off his deft hands to notch his second of the game.
Edmonton got one back with another power-play goal with 5:09 left as a rebound pinballed around in front before coming to Hyman at the side of the net for his team-leading 35th.
Zuccarello sealed the win with an empty-netter with 1:27 left.
"I thought we did a lot of good things, but one thing we didn’t do well was finish,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. “There were a lot of pucks that either hit goalposts or trickled wide or were lying around the crease. Sometimes those go in and some nights they don’t. Tonight we were unfortunate in that area.”
UP NEXT
Wild: At Seattle on Saturday night to finish a three-game trip.
Oilers: Host Calgary on Saturday night in the third of a five-game homestand.
___
AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
The Associated Press
