Forward Matt Boldy kept the suspense going until literally the last second of overtime before playing heroes in the Minnesota Wild’s 2-1 win over the New Jersey Devils in Newark.
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In a spectacular sequence, the young American retrieved the disc at the blue line of the wild five seconds before the end. Out of breath, he sped through the neutral zone and slipped past Vitek Vanecek. Boldy beat the Czech keeper with a nice backhand fake by 1.3 seconds.
On the other side of the ice, Swede Filip Gustavsson made a well-deserved contribution to his record. He blocked 47 of the Devils’ 48 attempts.
It’s also new signing Timo Meier, who was the sole goalscorer of Lindy Ruff’s squad. He leveled the game in the third period by hitting Gustavsson around the net with a spinner.
Support forward Mason Shaw opened the scoring for the Wild, who have won five of their last seven games.
As for them, the Devils lost ground to the Carolina Hurricanes and first place in the Metropolitan Division. They have dropped the flag four times in the last five games.