Boldy’s hat trick powers Wild to a 7-4 win over Red Wings

Rookie Matt Boldy had his first career hat trick and added an assist to lead the Minnesota Wild to a 7-4 win over the Detroit Red Wings on Monday night.

Kirill Kaprizov had two goals, Joel Eriksson Ek and Ryan Hartman also scored, and Mats Zuccarello added three assists for Minnesota, which rallied from a two-goal deficit early in the first period. The Wild are 11-1-1 since Jan. 6, and have won six in a row at home.

Kaapo Kahkonen made 29 saves for Minnesota.

Dylan Larkin opened the scoring for Detroit with his 25th of the season, and Gustav Lindstrom tallied his first career goal to give the Red Wings the early advantage. Rookie Lucas Raymond and Sam Gagner also scored for Detroit, which closed within a goal with 1:46 remaining.

Alex Nedeljkovic stopped 18 shots in goal for the Red Wings, who had won three of four.

Detroit attacked quickly with Larkin scoring 1:27 into the game. It was his 11th game-opening goal of the season, which leads the NHL, and he has five goals and seven assists in a six-game point streak.

Lindstrom scored for the first time in 69 career games, flipping a puck from the blue line past a screened Kakhonen to make it 2-0 four minutes in. The Red Wings scored on two of their first three shots.

Then Boldy, the 2019 first-round draft pick, took control.

He scored twice in the span of 2:05 to tie the game midway through the first. For his first goal, he spun away from a defender into the middle of the ice and lifted a shot past Nedeljkovic. His second goal was a deflection from the middle on the power play.

Boldy finished the hat trick late in the second with another power-play goal. It was the 33rd hat trick in team history, the third this season and the fourth by a rookie.

The 6-foot-2 forward has seven goals and six assists in his first 13 games. He made his professional debut last season after playing at Boston College and starring in the World Junior championships with seven points in seven games to lead the U.S. to the gold medal.

Kaprizov, Minnesota’s rookie headliner from last season, gave the Wild the lead early in the second with a one-timer on a pass from Zuccarello.

Kaprizov has 21 goals this season and has 11 goals and 12 assists in his last 15 games. Zuccarello, his linemate, has six goals and 18 assists in the same span.

INJURY NEWS

Both teams received unfortunate injury news before the game.

Wild defenseman Matt Dumba was scratched with a lower-body injury, and the team recalled Dakota Mermis from the American Hockey League.

Detroit C Vladislav Namestnikov was held out with an undisclosed injury.

UP NEXT

Red Wings: Face the Rangers in New York on Thursday.

Wild: Play at Winnipeg on Wednesday.