ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Wild fought their way out of their losing streak.
Literally.
After showcasing their frustration in four scraps, including three within seconds of each other, the Wild zeroed in on their three-game rut and banished it with a 3-2 overtime win against the Flyers on Thursday in front of 19,177 at Xcel Energy Center to end their worst slide since they started the season 0-3.
Mats Zuccarello delivered the decisive goal during a slick cut to the middle 2 minutes, 8 seconds into overtime, this after Philadelphia's Tony DeAngelo served up the equalizer with 1:28 to go in the third period.
Before then, Matt Boldy scored twice, erasing the Wild's deficit before snapping a 1-1 tie that emerged after the rough stuff.
Less than five minutes after the Wild fell behind on a deflection by Noah Cates at 5 minutes, 14 seconds of the first period, Ryan Reaves dropped the gloves with his predecessor in the Wild's sparkplug department Nic Deslauriers, whom the Wild acquired ahead of last season's trade deadline. Deslauriers went on to sign with Philadelphia in the offseason.
The dust-up elevated Reaves to 1,004 career penalty minutes, making him the eighth active NHLer to eclipse 1,000.
During the next shift, Mason Shaw and Wade Allison tussled briefly in the corner before they too were sent to the penalty box. And then after the next faceoff, Marcus Foligno squared off with Zack MacEwen.
That appeared to put the penalty box at maximum capacity, the area more crowded than the Wild's actual bench, but both teams avoided a standing-room only situation; the next battle, between Brandon Duhaime and Patrick Brown, wasn't until the second period.
Only 54 seconds after that scuffle, the Wild finally capitalized when Boldy got on the end of a behind-the-net feed from Foligno at 3:39. Boldy's 15th goal extended his point streak to four games, his second longest of the season.
The second-year winger's tally also counted as his 30th career goal in his 94th appearance; only Kirill Kaprizov (67 games) and Marian Gaborik (93) reached the 30-goal plateau faster among players who debuted with the Wild. He's also the second-youngest player in Wild history to hit the mark (21 years old).
Boldy's finish was the Wild's first at 5-on-5 in three games, but they'd also eventually get a lift from their power play (1 for 3).
After the Flyers (0 for 3) nearly posted the go-ahead goal in the third period during their own chance with the man advantage, a deflection that caromed off the post before Marc-Andre Fleury covered up the loose puck, the Wild took a turn on the power play and that's when Boldy continued his impressive effort.
He buried a one-time pass from Kaprizov while crashing the crease at 4:48 to register his 16th goal of the season and fourth in the last four games while also picking up his fourth game-winner, third two-goal game of the season and fifth multi-goal performance of his career; only Gaborik has multi-goal games more with the Wild before the age of 22 (12).
Carter Hart, in another otherwise sharp showing, finished with 20 saves for Philadelphia.
As for Fleury, he racked up 28 saves while making a second straight start for the first time since Dec. 29 and 31. His 32 wins against the Flyers are the third-most in NHL history, trailing only Martin Brodeur (50) and Henrik Lundqvist (35).
