Boldy's fortunate bounce gives Wild shootout win over Rangers
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Matt Boldy scored the deciding goal in the shootout and the Minnesota Wild beat the New York Rangers 5-4 after coming back from a three-goal deficit on Saturday night.
Mats Zuccarello and New York's Artemi Panarin traded goals to open the shootout before Boldy got a fortunate bounce for the winner. Boldy's shot went off the pipe and hit Rangers goalie Jonathan Quick in the back and deflected into the net.
Zuccarello had a goal and an assist, and Ryan Hartman, Joel Eriksson Ek and Marco Rossi also scored in regulation for the Wild, who snapped a four-game losing streak.
"We played our way, dominated in the O zone, kept the puck and just made them defend for 40 minutes," Minnesota forward Ryan Hartman said. "We're pretty happy about that win."
Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 13 of the 14 shots he faced after replacing Filip Gustavsson in the first period. Gustavsson allowed three goals on four shots over the first 6:53 as the Wild trailed 3-0.
Panarin and Erik Gustafsson each had a goal and an assist, and Jimmy Vesey and Chris Krieder scored for New York, which had won six straight. Quick made 36 saves.
"Disappointing not to come away with (two) points when you go up 3-nothing," Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said. "We were in a good spot. I think we lost synch completely at the end of half you know, after it was 3-nothing; just penalty kill, penalty kill, penalty kill, penalty kill, and then they got some momentum off of those penalty kills even though they didn't score.
After losing defenseman Adam Fox and forward Filip Chytil to injured reserve and playing without top goalie Igor Shesterkin, the Rangers jumped on the Wild quickly.
Vesey scored his first goal of the season just 3:36 into the game. Panarin added his sixth of the season at 5:52 and then Gustafsson scored his third a minute later, chasing Gustavsson from the game.
The final two periods of regulation were nearly all Minnesota, which outshot New York 26-12 over that span.
"Probably into the first period they kind of tilted the ice," Vesey said. "We knew they were desperate though. So no real excuses, but they definitely probably deserved the two points tonight."
Hartman opened the scoring for the Wild 5:57 into the second with his seventh goal of the season. He has six goals in his past six games. Eriksson Ek added his sixth of the year 29 seconds later to pull Minnesota within one.
Less than two minutes into the third, Minnesota defenseman Jonas Brodin kept the puck in the zone along the wall and sent a shot on net that found Zuccarello on the backside for a deflection to tie the score.
"In the past here early, we've changed and kind of got out of our game, and we didn't tonight," Wild coach Dean Evason said of giving up early goals. "It's a huge credit to the group and the leadership group. We challenged them and I think they did a fantastic job of keeping the entire group composed through a tough start."
Rossi added his fifth goal four minutes later to put Minnesota ahead, but Kreider countered with his seventh of the season to tie the score again at 6:40. Kreider passed Andy Bathgate for fourth on the Rangers' career goals list with his 273rd.
UP NEXT
Rangers: Host Detroit on Tuesday night.
Wild: Start a three-game road trip Tuesday night against the New York Islanders.
