Matt Boldy maintains his hot hand as go-to scorer for Wild

PHILADELPHIA — Matt Boldy is a goal-scoring machine right now, and he's skating like one, too.

For the third straight game, Boldy led the Wild in shots in their 5-4 shootout loss on Thursday at Philadelphia while scoring his fifth and sixth goals in that stretch to extend his seasonlong point streak to seven games.

"It just feels good," said Boldy, who is up to 25 goals this season and 40 overall in his NHL career. "I want the puck, the puck's coming to me, and it's going in. Just trying to play my game, play the way I want to play, creative, and make plays when they're there but solid everywhere. It's going well."

Boldy's wind-up in the second period sailed top shelf by Flyers goalie Carter Hart before the winger capitalized on a no-look backhander in the third to finish with two goals on a game-best seven shots.

Earlier on the Wild's road trip, Boldy deked on a buzzer-beater breakaway that sealed a 2-1 overtime win at New Jersey on Tuesday. He also potted his second NHL hat trick last Sunday vs. Washington when he pounced on a loose puck in tight, wired in a one-timer and finished from his forehand on a breakaway.

"He's so much fun to watch and already, I feel like, a pretty complete player, and he's just going to get better," said linemate Marcus Johansson, who assisted on Boldy's first goal vs. Philadelphia.

Since Kirill Kaprizov was sidelined with a lower-body injury, Boldy has a team-high eight goals and 29 shots in seven games to go along with four assists.

That's only seven more shots than he had over the previous seven games, but Boldy converted just once in that span and went goalless all of February.

"Sometimes it works out like that where pucks are coming your way and you have more chances to shoot," Boldy said recently. "It's just something that I know I always want to be better at. I seem like I say it every year since I was little to shoot more, but sometimes it just works out where pucks come your way and you go through phases where it's easy to shoot, phases where sometimes it's a little bit harder.

"But, yeah, the puck's finding me right now."

While the focus has been on Boldy upping his shot attempts, his passing ability is still a helpful skill because that unpredictability can make him difficult to defend.

"That's a good threat for him that teams know that he can shoot and pass, which maybe sometimes gives him a little bit more room, as well," Johansson said. "He's got a good mix of that. So, it's been fun to watch him play and even more fun to play with him because he's an unbelievable player."

Oskar Sundqvist had the Wild's first goal Thursday, becoming the first Wild player to score on his birthday since captain Jared Spurgeon accomplished the feat on Nov. 29, 2019.

This tally by Sundqvist, who turned 29, was his third during a five-game point streak for the Wild newcomer added in a trade on March 3 from Detroit.

Spurgeon suited up against the Flyers after missing the previous game due to illness, but the Wild blue line still wasn't back to full strength: John Klingberg was scratched with an upper-body injury.

"He took the morning skate or a bit of the morning skate, so it's not serious enough that he couldn't get out there," coach Dean Evason said. "So, he tried it. Hopefully we'll get him back in a couple of days, but we'll see."