Wild’s victory over Montreal comes at a cost: Injuries to Joel Eriksson Ek and Mats Zuccarello

The line juggling continued for the Wild, but this time for a different reason.

After Mats Zuccarello and Joel Eriksson Ek left injured in the first period, the shorthanded Wild used patchwork combinations to blank the Canadiens 3-0 on Thursday night at Xcel Energy Center in their return home from a trip that already had them down a defenseman.

“Guys dug in,” Matt Boldy said, “and we found a way.”

BOXSCORE: Minnesota 3, Montreal 0

Boldy scored his NHL-leading fifth game-winner, Kirill Kaprizov had a goal and assist, and goaltender Filip Gustavsson made 19 saves for his first shutout of the season in the Wild’s third win during their past four games.

“They had one chance, their second shot [of] the game, on the glove side there,” Gustavsson said. “That was maybe their best chance all game. We played really solid. We took some penalties, killed them off, and played good.”

At 11-2-3, the Wild are third in the league ahead of hosting the Stars on Saturday in what has the feel of their toughest test of the season — especially if their health doesn’t improve.

Zuccarello was the first to exit, with 7 minutes, 8 seconds to go in the first period, after he was struck by a Brock Faber shot that knocked him to the ice before Zuccarello gingerly skated off.

Soon after, Eriksson Ek also disappeared; he logged just four shifts.

Neither player returned, both suffering lower-body injuries, and coach John Hynes didn’t have an update on either’s status.

Already, the Wild were without Jonas Brodin after the defenseman sustained an upper-body injury last Sunday at Chicago.

Brodin is considered day-to-day.

The Wild rallied for a point in that 2-1 overtime loss to the Blackhawks at the end of a three-game road trip after shuffling their lines, the rare 5-on-5 trio of Boldy, Kaprizov and Zuccarello connecting on the game-tying goal.

But against Montreal, the Wild had to reconfigure on the fly because they were down to 10 forwards, and they ended a ho-hum first period with just four shots; the Canadiens had only two.

“You gotta have good line changes,” Hynes said. “You gotta be sharp on the bench, but that’s why you have structure because you can plug and play. You can use different combinations at certain times. When everyone does their job and digs in, that’s what you usually get.”

A shorter bench led to a Boldy-Kaprizov reunion, and that’s what helped the Wild finally capitalize.

Kaprizov spun for a no-look pass to Marcus Johansson, who handed off to Boldy for a tic-tac-toe one-timer at 12:43 of the second period that sailed by Montreal goalie Sam Montembeault (25 saves).

“So lucky to get out there with [Kaprizov],” Boldy said. “Yeah, it’s a great play he made.”

The goal was Boldy’s 10th, which is tied with Kaprizov for the team lead, and Boldy’s five game-winners are one more than the four Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl has. Boldy has 12 points in his past 12 games.

Gustavsson’s workload didn’t increase much in the second, but he was busier in the third.

After turning aside both shots the Canadiens had on the power play early in the second period, Gustavsson was airtight again in the third on Montreal’s second and third tries for a 3-for-3 night for the Wild’s penalty kill.

“His east-west play, particularly on the penalty kill when they move it quick and they get those flank shots, he’s reading the play,” Hynes said. “He’s in position so when those shots come, he’s basically square to the shooter.

“What I found about him the more I’ve been able to work with him now is when he’s really playing well, I think his rebound control is excellent. He eats pucks.”

A retooled Wild power play sans Zuccarello and Eriksson Ek didn’t debut until the third period, when captain Jared Spurgeon was cut by a high stick, and that’s when the Wild extended their lead.

With five seconds left in their four-minute advantage, Marco Rossi flung in a top-shelf shot at 12:19; the power play finished 1-for-3.

“Special teams were huge,” Rossi said. “The PK was really strong today, and the power play — we had a good, strong goal.”

An empty-netter with 20 seconds left made Kaprizov the fastest in team history to reach 30 points, his 16 games besting his 22-game clip from two seasons ago.

Kaprizov remains second in league scoring behind Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon.

As for Gustavsson, this was his seventh career shutout. He improved to 8-2-2 with a 2.08 goals-against average and .924 save percentage after backstopping the Wild to their fourth victory in six home games.

“We never got out of the structure,” Hynes said. “We never got loose. We had some puck decisions in the second that needed to be better, but even when we went out in the third, it was, ‘We gotta play the game that we’re in. This is what’s required to win this game,’ and I thought the guys did a very good job of responding to that.”