St. Louis Blues at Minnesota Wild
· National Hockey League
Matt Boldy has 5th career hat trick and Wild beat Blues 5-4
Quinn Hughes had two assists to establish a franchise record for the longest season-opening point streak at eight games.
Danila Yurov also scored, Joel Eriksson Ek also had two assists and Jesper Wallstedt made 21 saves for Minnesota, which has won three of four.
Dylan Holloway scored with 15 seconds left for St. Louis after Robert Thomas scored with 4 minutes remaining. Jonatan Berggren and Mason McTavish also had goals.
From near the left dot, Boldy hammered home a no-look backhand pass by Kaprizov for a 5-2 lead late in the second period, leading to hats aplenty landing on the ice.
Boldy, who scored on a one-timer in the first period and off a turnover earlier in the second period, is the third-fastest active American skater to record five hat tricks, doing so in 369 games. Only Tage Thompson of Buffalo (279 games) and Jason Robertson of Dallas (363) were quicker.
The top-line trio of Boldy, Kaprizov and Eriksson Ek has 12 goals in the past four games. Boldy has five, as does Kaprizov, including a hat trick last Saturday at Florida and both goals in Tuesday’s 5-2 loss at Winnipeg.
Hughes, who fed Boldy for his first goal, is the third defenseman in NHL history to open a season with an assist streak of at least eight games. Colorado’s John-Michael Liles has the record at nine in 2010-11, and Ottawa’s Filip Kuba also had eight in 2008-09.
Joel Hofer made 33 saves for the Blues.
St. Louis played without Pavel Buchnevich. The left wing, who had three assists in Tuesday’s 7-2 win over Ottawa, returned home for the birth of his child.
Wild: Host Columbus on Sunday.
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Regular Season SeriesMIN leads series 1-0
Scoring Summary
 |
Goal | 1st Period 1:45 | Jonatan Berggren Goal (2) Backhand, assists: Cam Fowler (2), Dalibor Dvorsky (1) |
 |
Goal | 1st Period 7:31 | Matt Boldy Goal (3) Slap Shot, assists: Quinn Hughes (9), Joel Eriksson Ek (3) |
|
Goal | 1st Period 11:17 | Danila Yurov Goal (3) Wrist Shot, assists: Maxim Shabanov (3), Yakov Trenin (1) |
|
Goal | 2nd Period 4:57 | Mason McTavish Goal (5) Backhand, assists: Pius Suter (3), Colton Parayko (4) |
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Goal | 2nd Period 5:24 | Matt Boldy Goal (4) Snap Shot, assists: Joel Eriksson Ek (4), Kirill Kaprizov (4) |
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Goal | 2nd Period 8:47 | Kirill Kaprizov Goal (9) Tip-In, assists: Quinn Hughes (10), Matt Boldy (2) |
|
Goal | 2nd Period 16:47 | Matt Boldy Goal (5) Wrist Shot, assists: Kirill Kaprizov (5), Michael McCarron (4) |
|
Goal | 3rd Period 16:00 | Robert Thomas Goal (1) Wrist Shot, assists: Cam Fowler (3) |
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Goal | 3rd Period 19:45 | Dylan Holloway Goal (1) Wrist Shot, assists: Robert Thomas (3), Cam Fowler (4) |
Statistics
 STL |
 MIN |
|
|---|---|---|
| 16 | Blocked Shots | 12 |
| 19 | Hits | 23 |
| 4 | Takeaways | 4 |
| 25 | Shots | 38 |
| 1 | Power Play Goals | 1 |
| 2 | Power Play Opportunities | 5 |
| 50.0 | Power Play Percentage | 20.0 |
| 1 | Short Handed Goals | 0 |
| 0 | Shootout Goals | 0 |
| 38 | Faceoffs Won | 29 |
| 56.7 | Faceoff Win Percent | 43.3 |
| 18 | Giveaways | 15 |
| 5 | Total Penalties | 2 |
| 10 | Penalty Minutes | 4 |
Minnesota Wild Injuries
| NAME, POS | STATUS | DATE |
|---|---|---|
| Olli Maatta, D | Out | Oct 17 |
| Jared Spurgeon, D | Out | Oct 15 |
| Nico Sturm, C | Injured Reserve | Oct 13 |
| Marcus Foligno, LW | Injured Reserve | Oct 12 |
| Filip Gustavsson, G | Injured Reserve | Oct 9 |
St. Louis Blues Injuries
| NAME, POS | STATUS | DATE |
|---|---|---|
| Ross Johnston, LW | Out | Oct 17 |
| Torey Krug, D | Injured Reserve | Oct 12 |
| Dillon Dube, C | Injured Reserve | Oct 10 |
| Alexey Toropchenko, RW | Injured Reserve | Oct 5 |
| Tyler Tucker, D | Injured Reserve | Sep 30 |
