Minnesota Wild's Marcus Johansson and Edmonton Oilers' Mattias Ekholm battle for the puck during the first period in Edmonton. The Wild won 4-2 on Feb. 23, 2024.JASON FRANSON/The Canadian Press
The Minnesota Wild weathered the Edmonton Oilers’ third period onslaught on Friday.
Matt Boldy scored a pair of goals as Minnesota came away with a 4-2 victory over the Oilers, despite getting outshot 24-7 in the final frame.
“We needed to get the job done and play well and I thought we played well tonight,” said Boldy. “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.”
Jonas Brodin and Mats Zuccarello also scored for the Wild (27-24-6), who have gone 6-1-1 in their last eight games.
“I liked the start of the game, I thought we played the way we wanted to play,” said Minnesota head coach John Hynes. “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.”
Filip Gustavsson made 41 saves for the win.
Leon Draisaitl and Zach Hyman responded for the Oilers (33-18-2), who have lost two in a row, but are nonetheless 28-7-1 in their last 36 games.
Edmonton outshot the Wild 43-20 in the game.
“Our group has just had little lulls, whether it is in the start or in the second and those can’t happen, obviously,” said McDavid, who was credited with hitting three posts in the game, the most of any player in a single game this season. “If you want to be a good team, you have to play all three periods. We haven’t done that in a bit here.”
It appeared as if the Wild had taken a 1-0 lead early in the game on a snipe by Joel Eriksson Ek, but the goal was quickly deemed to have been as the result of being offside and was negated by a video review.
Minnesota started the scoring for real with just 23 seconds to play in the first when Boldy cut into the middle and unleashed a wrist shot that ticked off of the glove of Oilers goalie Calvin Pickard and in for his 21st of the season. Eriksson Ek picked up an assist to extend his points streak to seven games.
Edmonton evened up the contest with a power-play marker midway through the second period as McDavid sent a backhand pass to Draisaitl and he beat Gustavsson short side with his patented one-timer from the right wing for his 28th of the season.
McDavid extended his home-game point streak to 21 games, tying his personal best such streak 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 goalie’s pads after almost poking it in himself.
The Wild retook the lead 9:31 into the third period as Brodin stepped in from the point and blasted a shot past Pickard for his fifth of the season. Kirill Kaprizov extended his points streak to seven games with an assist.
Minnesota went up by a pair 12:17 into the third as Edmonton coughed up the puck and Boldy showed off his deft hands to score his second of the game.
Edmonton got one back with another power play goals coming with five minutes to play as a rebound pinballed around in front before coming to Hyman at the side of the net for his team-leading 35th goal of the campaign.
The Wild put the game away on an empty-net goal by Zuccarello.
“I thought we did a lot of good things, but one thing we didn’t do well was finish,” said Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch. “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.”
Notes
It was the third and final meeting of the season between the two clubs. Each team had previously won on home ice ... Draisaitl collected his 284th career power-play point, moving him past Mark Messier for sole possession of third place in franchise history ... In addition to long-term injuries to Marcus Foligno, Pat Maroon and Jared Spurgeon, the Wild were also missing Zach Bogosian (upper body). Jon Merrill subbed in to take Bogosian’s place on the blue line ... The Oilers were healthy, with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins returning after missing the previous game with an illness ... It was the start of a hectic stretch of 29 games in 55 days for the Oilers, including seven back-to-backs.
Up next
Wild: Complete a three-game road trip against the Kraken in Seattle on Saturday.
Oilers: Play the third game of a five-game homestand on Saturday against the rival Calgary Flames.