Matt Boldy hat trick paces Minnesota past Washington 5-3

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Matt Boldy recorded his second profession hat trick and the Minnesota Wild rebounded to beat Washington 5-3 on Sunday.

Minnesota, which had its 14-game point-streak finish Saturday towards Boston, is inside one level of Dallas for the Central Division lead and two factors up on Colorado for second with a dozen video games to play.

Ryan Reaves and Brandon Duhaime additionally scored, and Marc-Andre Fleury made 33 saves for Minnesota, bettering to 7-0-0 in his final seven begins.

Alex Ovechkin scored twice on the facility play and Dylan Strome as soon as for Washington, 2-4-1 in its previous seven video games. The Capitals path Pittsburgh by 5 factors for the ultimate wild card spot with 11 video games remaining. Charlie Lindgren stopped 35 pictures.

The trio of Boldy, Marcus Johansson and Joel Eriksson Ek has set the tone for Minnesota within the 5 video games since Kirill Kaprizov was injured. Boldy has 5 targets and 4 assists, Johansson has two targets and 5 assists and Eriksson Ek has a aim and 4 assists.

Boldy accomplished his hat trick on a breakaway with 6:02 to play, and 85 seconds after Ovechkin acquired the Capitals inside 4-2. Boldy’s different three-goal recreation was Feb. 14, 2022.

Lower than a minute into the sport, Boldy slammed house a free puck from a Johansson shot after T.J. Oshie whiffed on a clearing try. 4 crisp, textbook-like passes between the trio made it 2-0 through a Boldy one-timer from low in the suitable circle lower than 4 minutes later.

It is the third time in 4 video games Washington trailed by two after a gap interval.

From his power-play house atop the left circle, Ovechkin lasered a shot previous Fleury early within the second and scored from about the identical place within the third. He has 27 targets in 45 video games towards Fleury, his most towards a single goaltender.

Ovechkin has recorded some extent in each recreation in Minnesota since Oct. 12, 2006, and his 0.90 targets per recreation towards the Wild — 19 targets in 21 video games – is the best charge he has recorded towards an opponent.

With 39 targets, his subsequent tally will mark his thirteenth season with no less than 40 targets, breaking a tie with Wayne Gretzky for many in league historical past. Washington ahead Evgeny Kuznetsov left the sport hunched over early within the third interval after getting crushed by Matt Dumba. Oshie and Dumba then dropped the gloves.

BOUNTIFUL BOLDY

Boldy has 22 targets this season, becoming a member of Marian Gaborik as the one gamers in Wild historical past to attain no less than 20 targets in a season earlier than age 22. Gaborik had 30 in 2001-02 and 2002-03. Now at 51 factors, Boldy additionally joins Gaborik (67 in 2001-02, 65 in 2002-03) and Pierre-Marc Bouchard (59 in 2005-06) as the one Wild skaters to get no less than 50 factors in a season earlier than age 22.

UP NEXT

Capitals: Host Columbus on Tuesday.

Wild: At New Jersey on Tuesday.