Boldy gets hat trick, Wild ease past Kraken

ST. PAUL, Minn. --Matt Boldy scored his second hat trick in five games, and the Minnesota Wild remained atop the Central Division with a 5-1 win against the Seattle Kraken at Xcel Energy Center on Monday.

Boldy, who also had a hat trick in a 5-3 win against the Washington Capitals on March 19, has scored nine goals in his past five games.
"Same kid I was in February when things weren't going in, so I think the more you just kind of stick with who you are and don't change much, the better," Boldy said.

Jake Middleton and Ryan Hartman also scored, Joel Eriksson Ek had two assists, and Marc-Andre Fleury made 35 saves for Minnesota (43-22-9), which has won two straight and is 4-0-1 during a five-game point streak.
The Wild are one point ahead of the Colorado Avalanche, who have one game in hand, for first in the Central. The Avalanche won 5-1 at the Anaheim Ducks on Monday.
"Marc-Andre Fleury was absolutely outstanding to give us a chance to get our legs under us," Minnesota coach Dean Evason said. "They play an offensive game. They go. They push the pace. They've got four lines that can score and get scoring chances. They did. We didn't defend real well at the start, and 'Flower' was there for us, and then we gradually got better.
"Second period wasn't that great either, but we did tighten up a little bit. We had some turnovers and silly plays in the first, but he was fantastic."

Jaden Schwartz scored for Seattle (40-25-8), which is 2-2-1 in its past five games. Philipp Grubauer allowed four goals on 13 shots before being replaced by Martin Jones, who made six saves in relief.
The Kraken fell five points behind the Edmonton Oilers for third in the Pacific Division. The Oilers won 5-4 at the Arizona Coyotes on Monday.
"It was one of those nights where we weren't rewarded for some of the good, hard work we did offensively," Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said. "We made too many mistakes that ended up in the back of our net. It felt like we could keep pushing and find one, especially in the first half of the hockey game … and get ourselves right back into it, but that didn't happen."
Middleton gave Minnesota a 1-0 lead at 15:17 of the first period. Jared Spurgeon faked a slap shot from the point before passing to Middleton, who skated into the left circle and beat Grubauer glove side.
"We didn't play that well in the first, so it was nice to get a quick one like that," Middleton said. "I had the easy part of that whole shift. … 'Spurge' making a great pass, [Eriksson Ek] screening."

Boldy extended the lead to 2-0 with a power-play goal at 5:38 of the second period, roofing a shot from the right circle off cross-ice pass from Marcus Johansson.
Boldy then made it 3-0 at 14:59 with a soft shot from the edge of the right circle that beat Grubauer far side.
Boldy completed the hat trick 50 seconds into the third period to make it 4-0. He scored with a one-timer off a pass from Eriksson Ek, who had forced a turnover by Justin Schultz along the goal line.
"My linemates are playing great," Boldy said. "Hopefully you guys are giving them a lot of credit. You look at some of those goals, just putting it on a tee for me. Great pass by [Johansson] on the first one. Then [Eriksson Ek] winning the face-off (on the second) and [Eriksson Ek] putting it on a tee again (for the third). Those guys are playing awesome."

Hartman pushed it to 5-0 at 10:21 of the third, receiving a lead pass from Mats Zuccarello and scoring glove side from the left circle.
Schwartz made it 5-1 at 11:00 when he backhanded in a rebound after Morgan Geekie's redirection hit off the post.
"It didn't feel like a 5-1 game," Schwartz said. "It felt closer than that. They had a couple good shots, good power-play goal. I don't know how many shots we had, maybe 35-40 shots. Just Fleury made some big, timely saves, and we just weren't quite there for the second chances tonight."
NOTES:Fleury is 8-0-1 with a 2.19 goals-against average and .934 save percentage in his past nine starts. … Minnesota is 6-1-2 since forward Kirill Kaprizov sustained a lower-body injury against the Winnipeg Jets on March 8.