Wild win 4th straight, hand Coyotes 7th loss in row

TEMPE, Ariz. -- Matt Boldy and Joel Eriksson Ek each had a goal and an assist for the Minnesota Wild, who won their fourth straight game with a 3-1 victory against the Arizona Coyotes at Mullett Arena on Wednesday.

Marc-Andre Fleury made 25 saves, and Jonas Brodin also scored for the Wild (25-23-5), who are 4-0-0 since the All-Star break.

“It's just nice to win, that’s the biggest thing,” Boldy said. “We’ve got 20 guys playing together, the goalies are playing great, the 'D' is awesome, and we're scoring goals. So, we've got to keep it going.”

Logan Cooley scored for the Coyotes (23-25-4), who have lost seven in a row (0-6-1). Connor Ingram made 28 saves in two periods before leaving with an undisclosed injury. Karel Vejmelka allowed one goal on 13 shots in relief.

“I would have loved us to put more pucks on the net,” Arizona coach Andre Tourigny said. “We held onto it a little bit. We were trying for the perfect play, which did not happen because they were playing well defensively."

Eriksson Ek scored a power-play goal to give Minnesota a 1-0 lead at 14:01 of the first period. Kirill Kaprizov bumped a pass off the end boards to Boldy, who slid the puck between defenseman Travis Dermott’s skates to Eriksson Ek for a one-timer in the low slot.

The Wild’s top line of Kaprizov, Eriksson Ek and Boldy combined for five points (two goals, three assists) and has 17 points (seven goals, 10 assists) during the four-game winning streak. Boldy has seven points (three goals, four assists), Eriksson Ek has five (three goals, two assists) and Kaprizov has five (one goals, four assists).

“They're playing with hard skill,” Minnesota coach John Hynes said. “A lot of their shifts, they're hard to contain. They're working as that trio. There's no passenger on the line, they're all playing this same style of game. When you have three talented players on the same line and they play with hard skill, they're going to be a tough group to play.”

Nick Schmaltz appeared to tie it 1-1 at 16:22 of the second period, but the goal was overturned after the Wild successfully challenged the play for goaltender interference.

“It was a key point in the game because they did have some momentum, they had some good O-zone shifts and they had us under duress a bit," Hynes said. "... It was an important call."

Tourigny said, “That was the kind of goal we needed to score tonight, and unfortunately it didn’t come."

Brodin then extended the lead to 2-0 at 19:39 of the second. He collected a loose puck behind the net to start a rush before taking a pass from Connor Dewar as the trailer in the right circle and scoring with a wrist shot.

“We're playing good, everything is good. We had the puck and we had a lot of chances,” Fleury said. “We stuck with it. Nobody changed the way. We played it always the same way.”

Cooley cut it to 2-1 at 5:21 of the third period, scoring five-hole from the left circle.

“It was pretty cool. [Fleury] is a Hall of Fame goalie, and growing up in Pittsburgh, I watched him a lot,” Cooley said. “I just tried to get a shot on net, and fortunately it went in, but it’s still a loss.”

Boldy made it 3-1 at 11:04. He took a cross-ice pass from Eriksson Ek in the neutral zone, got a step on Coyotes forward Alex Kerfoot, and scored with a shot that was kicked in by the right skate of Vejmelka.

“It was kind of a lucky bounce more than anything, just kind of rolled through him,” Boldy said. “I’m not really totally sure how it went by him, but there's no pictures on the score sheet. They all count.”

NOTES: Arizona has not won since Jan. 22. ... Kaprizov’s assist was his 50th point of the season (20 goals, 30 assists in 46 games). He is the first player in Wild history with four consecutive 50-point seasons. … Eriksson Ek has six goals in his past eight games. … Ingram is expected to be out about a week, Tourigny said.