NEWARK, N.J. — Matt Boldy potted a hat trick his last game.
Same with the Devils’ Jesper Bratt.
New Jersey averages the fifth-most goals in the NHL, while the Wild are one of the highest-producing teams of late. But their clash on Tuesday suggested otherwise.
Both sides were locked into a scoreless staring contest until the Devils blinked first and the Wild eked out a 2-1 overtime win in front of 16,124 at Prudential Center that extended their point streak on the road to nine games (7-0-2).
This run is the longest active in the NHL and tied for the third-longest in franchise history.
Overall, the Wild are 13-1-3 through their last 17 and are up to 90 points on the season with 11 games to go.
Boldy delivered the second and final tiebreaker in buzzer-beater fashion, lifting in a backhander off a breakaway as time expired in the extra session for his 23rd goal of the season and fourth in his past two games. Seconds earlier at the other end, New Jersey’s Jack Hughes smacked a shot off the post.
Earlier in the period, Mason Shaw capitalized first when he corralled a loose puck behind the net and stuffed it behind New Jersey goaltender Vitek Vanecek at 6:41 for his seventh goal of the season.
Shaw has six points over his past seven games, and Oskar Sundqvist’s assist on the play extended his point streak to four games.
Before Shaw’s tally, both netminders combined to turn aside 50 shots. By 12:08, the Devils responded on a wraparound from Timo Meier.
Goalie Filip Gustavsson finished with a career-high 47 saves, including an eye-popping 19 in the third period, to rebound from dropping his last two appearances while getting tagged for nine goals. He’s now given up two or fewer in 22 of his 31 starts.
As for Vanecek, he made 27 stops.
A 0-0 stalemate through two periods was somewhat unusual.
After all, the Devils entered play with a 3.49 goals-per-game clip and the Wild had tallied at least four in four of their previous five; the Wild were coming off a 5-3 victory over Washington that featured a Boldy hat trick, while Bratt’s three-goal effort led New Jersey past Tampa Bay 5-2, also on Sunday.
But a defensive duel also wasn’t a shocker. Both squads brought an identical goals-against average into this meeting (2.67).
What’s more, this neck-and-neck pace was very much on branch for this time of the season when teams like the Wild and Devils are bracing for the playoffs and the Wild have become quite familiar with that style.
This was their 19th one-goal victory, and they’re 13-1-8 in games that are tied with five minutes remaining in regulation.
The Wild also have 12 wins decided past regulation.
Not long before Shaw finally solved Vanecek, Gustavsson denied Jesper Boquvist in tight for one of his best stops of the night; another came in the second period when Gustavsson kept out a five-hole try from Bratt. Neither power play converted, with the Wild 0 for 1 and New Jersey 0 for 3.
While the Wild did get Marcus Foligno back from injury, they were without captain Jared Spurgeon due to illness.
Next up for the Wild is this road trip finale on Thursday at Philadelphia.