ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Matt Boldy had his fifth career hat trick as part of a four-point night, Kirill Kaprizov added his league-high ninth goal and two assists, and the Minnesota Wild held off the St. Louis Blues 5-4 on Thursday night.
Quinn Hughes had two assists to establish a franchise record for the longest season-opening point streak at eight games.
Danila Yurov also scored, Joel Eriksson Ek also had two assists and Jesper Wallstedt made 20 saves for Minnesota, which has won three of four.
Dylan Holloway scored with 15 seconds left for St. Louis after Robert Thomas scored with 4 minutes remaining. Jonatan Berggren and Mason McTavish also had goals.
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From near the left dot, Boldy hammered home a no-look backhand pass by Kaprizov for a 5-2 lead late in the second period, leading to hats aplenty landing on the ice.
Boldy, who scored on a one-timer in the first period and off a turnover earlier in the second period, is the third-fastest active American skater to record five hat tricks, doing so in 369 games. Only Tage Thompson of Buffalo (279 games) and Jason Robertson of Dallas (363) were quicker.
The top-line trio of Boldy, Kaprizov and Eriksson Ek has 12 goals in the past four games. Boldy has five, as does Kaprizov, including a hat trick last Saturday at Florida and both goals in Tuesday’s 5-2 loss at Winnipeg.
Hughes, who fed Boldy for his first goal, is the third defenseman in NHL history to open a season with an assist streak of at least eight games. Colorado’s John-Michael Liles has the record at nine in 2010-11, and Ottawa’s Filip Kuba also had eight in 2008-09.
Joel Hofer made 33 saves for the Blues.
St. Louis played without Pavel Buchnevich. The left wing, who had three assists in Tuesday’s 7-2 win over Ottawa, returned home for the birth of his child.
Up next
Blues: At Nashville on Saturday.
Wild: Host Columbus on Sunday.
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