Takeaways: Wild get strong performance from goalie Jesper Wallstedt, beat Hurricanes 4-3 in a shootout

Jesper Wallstedt finally gave up a goal, but the Wild goaltender kept another streak going.

Wallstedt has yet to lose in regulation after making a career-high 42 saves Wednesday night at Grand Casino Arena in a 4-3 nail-biter, which the Wild won in a shootout, against the high-flying Hurricanes.

“Maybe everything didn’t click for us today, but you cannot say that the effort was not there,” Wallstedt said. “That shows how strong of a team we are even though we maybe didn’t have our best game.”

Matt Boldy had the only goal of the shootout, scoring on the Wild’s third attempt before Wallstedt stopped Taylor Hall to thwart Carolina’s comeback and improve to 5-0-2 in his first season as the Wild’s backup.

The Hurricanes scored twice in the third period, including a backbreaker from former Eden Prairie High School star Jackson Blake with 1 minute, 6 seconds left.

But Wallstedt denied Blake on a breakaway in overtime and went a perfect 3-for-3 in the shootout. His best save was an outstretched glove stop on Andrei Svechnikov.

“I bit a little on the move and then just threw my glove out there,” said Wallstedt, whose .926 save percentage leads the NHL and 2.20 goals-against average is third. “Kind of got lucky it got hit, but it was hard. All three guys had different tempos. Kind of just had to match my speed with their speed.”

As for the Wild, they’ve won a season-best three straight games, are on a six-game point streak and own only one regulation loss in their last nine.

Boldy also netted the first shorthanded goal of his career, while Mats Zuccarello scored his first and set up another in his sixth game back from surgery that sidelined him the first month of the season.

His new-look line with Kirill Kaprizov and Danila Yurov was up and down, according to coach John Hynes, but Yurov assisted on two goals for his first career multi-point game while skating a career-high 14:20.

Carolina goalie Frederik Andersen faced only 18 shots, his 15 saves a fraction of Wallstedt’s workload.

“He won it for us,” Brock Faber said. “We know where we have to be better. But two points is two points. We’ll never get mad at that.”

“To be honest, I don’t know,” Faber said when asked where the puck hit him. “My foot maybe.”

That lead doubled at 11:46 when Boldy intercepted a Carolina pass to skate in alone on a Wild penalty kill and bury the breakaway five-hole on Andersen; the Wild PK went 2-for-2, while the power play blanked on its lone look.

But the Hurricanes were better in the second period, outshooting the Wild 16-5, and that pressure culminated in the first goal against Wallstedt and first five-on-five goal allowed by the Wild since their 5-2 win over the Islanders on Nov. 7.

Blake had his second goal in as many games vs. the Wild, tipping in a Sean Walker shot 14:03 into the second.

“In the first period we played really well,” Hynes said, “and then I thought they took control of the game.”

Yurov and Kaprizov worked the puck to Zuccarello, who went into the offensive zone uncontested after a pair of Hurricanes players collided and drained a shot 15 seconds into the period.

Sebastian Aho reinstated a one-goal difference at 6:34 with a sizzling shot off the rush before a jam by Blake slid under Wallstedt’s pad for the equalizer while Andersen was on the bench for an extra attacker.

In overtime, Blake had a chance at a hat trick on a breakaway, but Wallstedt blocked the attempt, a preview of what was to come in the shootout.

“I really liked his battle and competitiveness,” Hynes said. “I thought he held the fort for us, for sure, and in the second for large portions of that period. Then he came up with some big saves, and then to find a way to do it in the shootout, I thought that was good.

“It was good to see that growth where you’re playing really well, but you have to find a way to win the game, and he did.”

Look for Wallstedt to get more action.

How can he not?

Even though his shutout streak finished — it’s the fourth-best in team history, and his 95 straight stops are third most — this was the best Wallstedt has played. Considering this was his toughest opponent, that should only increase the confidence the Wild already have in him, especially as they’re heating up.

They wrapped their homestand 4-0-1, which is quite the about-face from the 2-2-2 showing they had during their last stint in St. Paul.