Matt Boldy recorded a hat trick to guide the Minnesota Wild to a 5-2 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena on Thursday.
Boldy began the scoring at 17:53 of the first period with a snap shot assisted by Kirill Kaprizov. The Maple Leafs responded early in the second period, tying the game at 4:05 when Auston Matthews beat Jesper Wallstedt on a wrist shot set up by Zack MacEwen and Darren Raddysh. Under three minutes later, MacEwen converted a wrist shot at 6:59 to put Toronto ahead 2-1. Minnesota pulled even on the power play at 9:55, as Boldy struck with a slap shot off feeds from Quinn Hughes and Kaprizov.
Boldy completed his hat trick 3:59 into the third period, scoring with a wrist shot off helpers from Ryan Hartman and Zach Bogosian to give Minnesota a 3-2 advantage. Michael McCarron added an insurance goal with a wrist shot at 7:34, assisted by Blake Coleman and Danila Yurov. Yurov capped the scoring with an empty-net goal at 19:03, assisted by Nick Foligno and Kaprizov.
Wallstedt stopped 26 of 28 shots to earn the victory for the Wild. Anthony Stolarz made 21 saves on 25 shots for Toronto. Minnesota finished 1-for-3 on the power play, while the Maple Leafs went 0-for-2 with the man advantage.
With the win, the Wild improved their regular-season record to 14-3-4 and have now won two straight games. The Maple Leafs dropped to 8-11-2 and are winless in their last five contests.
Minnesota continues its road schedule on Saturday, visiting the Boston Bruins. Toronto remains at home to host the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday.
