‘Best pass I’ve ever seen’ included in Wild playoff scoring spree of Matt Boldy

LAS VEGAS – The hang time was impressive, as Kirill Kaprizov’s lob sailed by the raised stick of Vegas’ Brett Howden as Howden futilely tried to bat the puck down to the ice.

What was more striking, though, was the accuracy.

Kaprizov’s airborne feed from his own end caught Matt Boldy in stride to spring the Wild winger for a breakaway that Boldy also executed perfectly.

“It might have been the best pass I’ve ever seen,” Boldy said, a compliment that didn’t go undetected by someone else who has set Boldy up in his career.

“That’s actually rude,” Marcus Foligno quipped. “I assisted on your first NHL goal.”

Since No. 1 in his debut three years ago, Boldy has added another 105 to his collection — plenty of power-play markers, some empty-netters and more than a few overtime clinchers.

But never have the goals he’s netted mattered more than they do now.

His clutch deliveries have helped the Wild to a split of their first-round, best-of-seven series against the Golden Knights going into Game 3 Thursday at Xcel Energy Center after a coming-of-age regular season for Boldy proved he was ready for this type of leadership.

“You want to make a difference,” he said after a 5-2 victory in Game 2 on Tuesday night. “Everyone on our team has that mentality to go out there and play their role, to find a way to win. For me, it’s playing hard and [being] strong on pucks and making plays and scoring goals.”

Of his four seasons with the Wild, this hasn’t been Boldy’s flashiest.

A first-round draft pick out of Boston College, he had 15 goals as a rookie in barely half a season. In his return, Boldy reached a career-high 31 after signing a seven-year, $49 million contract and being one of the most dominant scorers in the NHL during the stretch run. Then again last season, he dazzled late alongside Kaprizov and Joel Eriksson Ek despite the Wild missing the playoffs.

But Boldy’s 27 goals this season were the most consequential: He appeared in all 82 games, the Wild’s most consistent threat on offense, and the 24-year-old was key in crunch time while Kaprizov and Eriksson Ek were still on the mend — pacing the pack from mid-March on when the Wild fell into the Western Conference wild-card race.

Overall, his 10 game-winning goals were a franchise record and tied for third in the league.

“We could all see it coming with Bolds,” Foligno said. “He’s still so young. You’re given a contract, yeah. But at the end of the day, he still has lots to learn. He knows, and that’s the scary part for opponents is that he’s still growing into his body, still trying to become a power forward on a nightly basis. Right now, this season, he’s been our best player.

“I’m proud of him the way he’s matured.”

This growth also includes his presence off the ice.

After a lackluster loss to the Islanders on April 4, Boldy spoke up, reminding the team how hard it’s worked amid all the injuries. Then in the Wild’s very next game, Boldy backed up his words with action, factoring in every goal in a 3-2 overtime victory over the Stars.

“It was just more about staying positive and staying the course,” Foligno said. “When you get that from a young guy, he said all the right things that needed to be said, and he comes back next game and is first star and a force behind why we won.”

Boldy’s given the Wild the same opportunity to succeed in the playoffs.

Both the goals in the 4-2 loss in Game 1 to Vegas were his, a shot off the rush followed by a heads-up wraparound. Then Boldy made no mistake on that breakaway to start the win on Tuesday night and tie Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon for the playoff lead in goals with three.

The performance is reminiscent of Boldy’s showing at the 4 Nations Face-Off in February, where he stood out among the NHL’s biggest stars, chipping in a goal and two assists for Team USA during their run to the championship, which Canada ultimately won in overtime.

“As the tournament went on, he got better and better,” said Wild coach John Hynes, who was an assistant for the United States. “His poise, his confidence, the ability to get to his game and the best-on-best, high-stakes environment was really beneficial A) for him but B) for us that he’s a guy that in that environment thrived.”

That might be the most encouraging part of Boldy’s impact so far in this series vs. Vegas, that he’s contributed by playing to his identity — him, Kaprizov and Eriksson Ek rediscovering the chemistry that made them one of the most dynamic lines in hockey the second half of last season by the trio skating direct and attacking north instead of east-west.

As a result, they’ve been more influential than the Golden Knights’ first line of Ivan Barbashev, Jack Eichel and Mark Stone with Foligno sensing the frustration; not only have the Wild’s top three outproduced Vegas’, but the Wild are out-chancing the Golden Knights 3 to 1 when Kaprizov-Eriksson Ek-Boldy is on the ice.

“The biggest thing with our line is just getting pucks back, forechecking hard, hanging onto pucks,” said Boldy, who’s also added the penalty kill to his repertoire and is called upon when the Wild are defending a late lead.

“When you can do that and stay in the zone and get second and third chances from getting pucks back after shots and retrievals, it’s hard as a defender when you’re out there versus guys like that. You end up being in the zone for a while.

“So, when we’re playing heavy and strong and then the skill takes over from there, that’s kind of the foundation for us.”

Boldy knows what works for him but also what’s expected of him, and they’re connected: He’s sticking to his strengths, and that’s why he’s getting the job done for the Wild.

“The more you embrace that and accept it and kind of find that as a challenge, I think it helps,” Boldy said. “Everyone’s trying to step up and play hard and do anything we can to win.”