Takeaways: Hurricanes have all the answers in 4-3 victory over Wild

Whenever the Wild had reason to celebrate, the Carolina Hurricanes crashed their party.

The Wild were one-upped all Thursday night, getting dumped 4-3 at Lenovo Center as their modest two-game winning streak ended.

“I thought we put together a decent game,” Wild defenseman Brock Faber told reporters in Raleigh, N.C. “But not good enough.”

Carolina retaliated after every Wild goal, including scoring twice during a three-goal, 52-second blitz for both teams in a hectic first period in which the Wild’s Tyler Pitlick was ejected.

But the Hurricanes’ fastest response time was in the second period, with Nikolaj Ehlers’ nine-second reply to a 3-3 tie giving Carolina a lead the home team would hold on to for the rest of the game.

Former Eden Prairie High School star Jackson Blake also had a goal for the Hurricanes in addition to picking up an assist, while Wild forward Matt Boldy netted a pair of goals to end his six-game drought.

Goaltender Filip Gustavsson, who usually thrives against Carolina, stopped 23 of 27 shots. The Hurricanes’ Frederik Andersen wasn’t much better despite a lighter workload; Andersen was beat on the first two shots he faced before finishing with 21 saves.

Then, just past the midway point of the period, Pitlick hit the Hurricanes’ Jalen Chatfield and was given a match penalty for an illegal check to the head, putting the Wild down a forward for the rest of the night.

Carolina captain Jordan Staal fought Pitlick in the aftermath, and because Staal was called for instigating, action shifted to 4-on-4 and both sides took advantage.

Blake polished off a near end-to-end rush at 12:53, and 31 seconds later, Kaprizov handed off to Faber for a one-timer. Marcus Johansson’s assist on the play extended his career-best point streak to seven games.

Another 21 seconds after that, the Hurricanes secured their second equalizer when Andrei Svechnikov skated through the Wild before wiring the puck by Gustavsson.

Sean Walker was the next to elude Gustavsson, who unsuccessfully waved his glove at Walker’s shot through traffic with 3:09 to go in the first.

The Wild looked ready to capitalize on a fresh start in the second period.

At 37 seconds, Boldy redirected in a feed from Vladimir Tarasenko on the power play (the Wild finished 1-for-3) for a 3-3 tie and Boldy’s first two-goal game of the season.

“Even the games when he’s not on the scoresheet, he still does a lot of things that help a team win,” Hynes said of Boldy, “and it’s nice to see him growing that part of his game, too, that when the points don’t come, he’s still an impact player for us in a positive way.”

But once again, Carolina answered back in a hurry.

A breezy nine seconds after Boldy scored, Blake gobbled up a Faber turnover and set up a net-crashing Ehlers for the putback.

BOXSCORE: Carolina 4, Wild 3

NHL standings

The Wild and the Hurricanes combined for the fastest three goals and two goals in the NHL this season.

What a wasted opportunity for the Wild, who have been a challenging matchup for Carolina in recent seasons.

Despite draining three of their first four shots against Andersen, the Wild didn’t up the pressure until the third period — and their limited output wasn’t because most of their attempts missed the net or were getting blocked.

To make matters worse, the Hurricanes weren’t running up the shot clock like they usually do and went 0-for-2 on the power play, emphasizing how much of a what-if loss this is.

The Wild did have their best effort late, but by then, Andersen was in enough of a groove to withstand the threat.

“We were a little bit too one-and-done,” Hynes said.

Boldy’s three shots were tied for the most on the team, while rookie defenseman Zeev Buium had two. Buium played with Daemon Hunt, who made his season debut after the defenseman was claimed off waivers from the Columbus Blue Jackets last month to rejoin the organization that drafted him. David Jiricek was scratched.

“He plays the game with tempo,” Hynes said of Hunt, whose skating and puck-moving ability were also praised by Hynes.