In St Paul, Matt Boldy hit for a hat trick on Sunday, and the Wild downed the Washington Capitals, 5-3.
Marc-Andre Fleury made 33 saves in the win.
Minnesota improved to 40-22-8.
Boldy scored twice in the first period for a 2-0 lead.
“The team has stepped up, right? Not just a few guys. Everybody,” Wild coach Dean Evason said. “Everybody has. I don’t think they sat in there and said, ‘Guys we have to score now.’ They’ve always tried to score, but with (forward Kirill Kaprizov) absence, they all know that there’s a little extra push that’s needed to be had because literally he’s playing half the game, so there’s opportunities for people and people have been able to step up.”
Alex Ovechkin scored off the power play in the second period to get the Caps on the board and 2-1 lead for the Wild.
“It’s frustrating we just haven’t started good,” Washington’s Dylan Strome said. “I think like our last 40 minutes of the last five or six games have been pretty good. We’ve been hanging in there with everyone we played against.
“Obviously, our starts aren’t good. I’m not sure of the exact reason. We got to have a better start next game. Time’s quickly running out. You take away the first five minutes of the last five games, I feel like we’ve got more goals than the other team. Keeping it 0-0 to the first TV timeout is maybe what we have to do. Easier said than done. We just have to keep working hard and find a way to get out the first period tied or better.”
Ryan Reaves scored midway through the middle frame to give the Wild a 3-1 lad headed to the third period.
Brandon Duhaime scored early in the third for a 4-1 lead to the Wild, and Ovechkin scored his second power play goal of the game for a 4-2 score.
The Caps dropped to 33-31-7.
“We don’t give up, try to battle back,” Ovechkin said. “We try our best to win the hockey game. We don’t stop playing. We battle.”
Boldy finished his hat trick at 13:58 of the third for a 5-2 lead to the Wild.
Strome hit for the Caps with the extra skater for the 5-3 final, his goal came at 16:26, but the Caps could not muster any additional offense.
Charlie Lindgren made 35 saves in the loss.
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