In Newark, Matt Boldy scored with less than two second left in extra time on Tuesday night to give the Minnesota Wild a 2-1 over the New Jersey Devils.
The win pushed the Wild into a tie with the Dallas Stars atop the Central Division.
“I didn’t know there was that little amount of time,” Boldy said. “I didn’t know it was going to be 1.3 seconds, but it was really nice just because I was able to kind of make my own read, make my move that I wanted to make.”
Filip Gustavsson made 47 saves in the Minnesota win.
“It’s just so much fun to win,” Gustavsson said. “Anyone that likes losing shouldn’t be doing sports. It was really close (on the winner). I don’t know if there was five seconds when [Boldy] got the puck. I guess he’s been working out a lot this summer and skating super-fast, so it was fun to see he got a shot on net.”
The Wild improved to 41-22-8 off their ninth win in 12 games.
“I just think it was a great hockey game,” Wild coach Dean Evason said. “There was nothing cheap. It was hard, guys played fast. They’re a great team, obviously, and we played really well in order to give ourselves a chance to win in the end.”
The game was scoreless until Mason Shaw hit at 6:41 of the third for a 12-0 lead to the Wild.
“The bottom line is we’ve got a lot of guys that can play in the National Hockey League and play at a high level,” Evason said. “It’s exciting for us to have the depth that we do.”
New Jersey dropped to 45-18-8.
“Both goalies were good,” New Jersey coach Lindy Ruff said. “I thought, offensively, we left some really key plays out there. I look at the 3-on-1 in regulation, I look at the 3-on-1 in overtime … we generated some opportunities. We stayed with it, tied it up, so you take the point and we’ve got to move on.”
At 12:08 of the third, Timo Meier scored to tie the game, 1-1, and force the extra session.
“I think we have confidence in our team that that we know how to play in these tight games, and we feel comfortable in our system and know how to play it,” Boldy said. “We obviously have played in a lot of one-goal games this year, so it’s nice to have that experience and kind of be able to just be calm in that moment, rather than stressed out.”
Vitek Vanecek made 27 saves in the loss.
“It was a tight game,” Vanecek said. “It’s frustrating, but what are you going to do? I didn’t look at the clock. I was just focused on the breakaway.”
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