Boldy scores hat trick, Wild hold off late Blues rally

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Matt Boldy had a hat trick and an assist for the Minnesota Wild, who held off the St. Louis Blues for a 5-4 win at Grand Casino Arena on Thursday.

It was Boldy’s fifth NHL hat trick.

“Throughout our whole lineup, everyone was really good tonight,” Boldy said. “Everyone made a difference, which is what you need when guys are out. It's that next man up, you got to start on doing things the right way and hopefully everyone follows along and you play that simple, hard game, then let the game come to you.

“Obviously, we want to have an impact from every game, but when you have guys out, you try to step up.”

Robert Thomas scored short-handed for St. Louis to cut it to 5-3 at 16:00 of the third period, and Dylan Holloway made it 5-4 with 15 seconds remaining with Joel Hofer pulled for the extra attacker.

Kirill Kaprizov had a goal and two assists, Danila Yurov also scored and Jesper Wallstedt made 21 saves for the Wild (5-2-1), who won for the third time in four games (3-1-0).

Quinn Hughes had two assists to extend his season-opening streaks for points (two goals, 10 assists) and assists (10 assists) to eight games.

“I thought we played a really strong, collective team game,” Minnesota coach John Hynes said. “We played organized. We were stingy, highly competitive. Our detail was good.”

Thomas had a goal and an assist, Mason McTavish scored and Cam Fowler had three assists for the Blues (3-3-1), who had points in three straight (2-0-1). Hofer made 33 saves.

Despite battling back to make it a one-goal game in the end, St. Louis didn’t contain Minnesota’s top line well enough, especially in the second period, coach Jim Montgomery said.

“They’re very dangerous, and they showed us why they’re so dangerous,” Montgomery said. “And we made it too easy for them. I did like our fight to come back and just to try and prevail in the game.”

Jonatan Berggren’s power-play goal gave the Blues a 1-0 lead 1:45 into the game, finishing top shelf on the backhand.

Boldy tied it 1-1 at 7:31 with a quick slap shot during a 5-on-3 advantage.

Yurov put the Wild ahead 2-1 at 11:17, scoring from the high slot off the rush on a pass down low from Maxim Shabanov.

McTavish tied it 2-2 at 4:57 of the second period, but Boldy responded just 27 seconds later with his second goal to put the Wild back in front 3-2, with Joel Eriksson Ek recording his second assist on the play.

“Their top line was really good all night,” Thomas said. “We were chasing them around. They made a ton of plays. We’ve got to do a better job. We knew how dangerous they were -- we let them have an easy night tonight.”

Kaprizov extended it to 4-2 at 8:47 with his ninth goal of the season. He passed the puck to Hughes, then went to the front of the net for the tip-in goal.

“The more reps and games we get together, the more we're just going to be reading off each other,” Hughes said of playing with Kaprizov and Boldy. “And I feel like we're getting to a place now where we're in a good spot with that. And it's just so fun, so fun playing with them.

“I feel like when we're out there together, we just tilt the ice.”

Boldy completed the hat trick at 16:47 to make it 5-2. He’s scored five goals over the past four games after starting the season without a point through four games.

Hynes has seen Boldy’s growth as a player the past few years.

“He knows he’s a good player,” Hynes said. “He knows what his game is. Parts of a season and maturing is he wants to win. He’ll do whatever it takes to win and sometimes the points don’t come, but his game doesn’t change.”

Hughes’ eight-game season-opening assist streak tied Filip Kuba (eight games in 2008-09) for the second-longest run by a defenseman in NHL history. His season-opening point streak of eight games passed Andrew Brunette (seven games in 2009-10) for the longest in Wild history.

“I’ve always thought that I don't care if I have a slow start or a hot start,” Hughes said. “It's obviously better to have a hot start, but over the course of 82 or 84 games, I always think that it evens out.”

NOTES: Boldy (369 games) is the third-fastest active American skater to record five career hat tricks, behind Tage Thompson (279 games) and Jason Robertson (363). … Kaprizov, who extended his point streak to five games (six goals, five assists), became the first player in Wild history to record 50 career three-point games. … Boldy became the second player in Wild history to record six career four-point games, following Marian Gaborik (seven). … Hughes’ assist on Boldy’s power-play goal was the 200th power-play assist of his career.