Fiala extends point streak to 11, Wild defeat Islanders

Kevin Fiala extended his point streak to 11 games for the Minnesota Wild in their fifth straight win, 4-3 against the New York Islanders at UBS Arena in Elmont, New York, on Sunday.

Fiala, who had an assist, has scored 14 points in his run (eight goals, six assists). It is the longest active point streak in the NHL and the second-longest in Wild history behind Mikael Granlund (12, 2016-17).
Kirill Kaprizov, Joel Eriksson Ek and Matt Boldy each had a goal and an assist for the Wild (27-10-3), who are 8-0-1 during a nine-game point streak. Kaapo Kahkonen made 40 saves.
"I mean, you go on these winning streaks we've been on, and I think maybe when we lost some games we deserved to win. … (But) I don't really know if we if we deserved to win that game with those two periods we played at the end," Eriksson Ek said. "But that's just how it is sometimes. You just got to try to grind out and know that we have to be better to keep winning games."

Brock Nelson scored, and Ilya Sorokin made 17 saves for the Islanders (15-16-6), who have lost their past two games.
New York is 2-14-2 and has been outscored 62-30 against teams currently in position to qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
"It might have been our best game of the year," Islanders coach Barry Trotz said. "Take away the first five minutes of the game, we were pretty solid."
Brandon Duhaime tapped in a blocked shot to give Minnesota a 1-0 lead at 3:36 of the first period, and Eriksson Ek scored a power-play goal 1:13 later to make it 2-0 at 4:39.
Nelson cut it to 2-1 at 13:56 after Wild defenseman Alex Goligoski blocked a shot.
"I thought we played a great game," Nelson said. "When you play like that, you're probably going to win more than you lose. Tonight, we just weren't able to. A little bit of a slow start, and that was the difference. A lot of positives, a lot of good things offensively. [We'll] try to keep that momentum and try and turn it and get a couple wins before the (All-Star) break."
Boldy redirected Victor Rask's shot at 2:39 of the second period to make it 3-1. Fiala had the secondary assist to extend his point streak.
Boldy, a rookie forward, has scored nine points (four goals, five assists) in his first nine NHL games.
"It's nuts for sure," Boldy said. "I think how we're playing right now and with our team and everywhere on the ice, it makes it pretty easy. I just go out there and try to do my thing and it's been working. Hopefully we can just keep that going."

Ross Johnston scored his first of the season on a breakaway at 4:03 to cut it to 3-2.
Kaprizov redirected Matt Dumba's shot to make it 4-2 at 11:27 of the third period.
Oliver Wahlstrom dove to knock in a loose puck during an Islanders power play at 16:00 for the 4-3 final.
"They obviously pushed very hard, but I think we had a great battle tonight," Kahkonen said. "It's not always pretty and you've got to just find a way to get the job done, and that's what we did."
New York outshot Minnesota 14-6 in the second period and 18-5 in the third to finish with a season-high 43 shots on goal.
"I thought we stayed in the fight," Trotz said. "We had a forecheck, we stayed and created a lot of different things off the forecheck. … Defensively, they really didn't get much. They got a couple looks. I thought we did a really good job containing, especially their top line (Kaprizov, Ryan Hartman, Mats Zuccarello), they end up getting the winning goal, but for the most part we had contained them all night. They didn't get much. … We had tons of chances and we just, we deserved a point tonight. We really did."
Zuccarello had his 10-game point streak end. He scored 18 points (five goals, 13 assists) in his run and multiple points in a Wild record six consecutive games (13 points: four goals, nine assists).
NOTES: Kaprizov has a personal 11-game point streak (eight goals, 12 assists). … Wild forward Marcus Foligno did not play because of an upper-body injury sustained during a 3-2 win at the New York Rangers on Friday. He is day to day. … Nelson has a three-game point streak. He has three goals and three assists in his past five games. … Islanders center Casey Cizikas was a late scratch due to a non-COVID-19 illness. … It was Johnston's first goal since Dec. 27, 2019.