Wild skate past Kraken, 5-2, behind goals from five players

Sarah McLellan, Star Tribune on Apr 7, 2026

Published in Hockey

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ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Wild will face the Dallas Stars in the first round of the playoffs, and the Wild will go into one final dress rehearsal against their rival on a roll.

They rallied twice against the Seattle Kraken before pulling away for a 5-2 victory on Tuesday night at Grand Casino Arena for their fourth straight win and a chance to catch up to Dallas for second place in the Central Division.

Only two points separate the teams with four games left in the regular season, and whoever finishes second will have home-ice advantage against the other in the first round. A win by Colorado earlier in the evening locked in a Wild vs. Stars matchup. The teams will square off Thursday night in Dallas when the Wild begin a three-game road trip.

Matt Boldy’s 42nd goal of the season was the Wild’s first tying goal, Marcus Foligno had the second, and a clutch coach’s challenge kept the action 2-2 in the second period before Vladimir Tarasenko netted the go-ahead goal for the Wild later in the period … not long after the scoreboard showed the Stars trailing the Flames, which elicited a cheer from the crowd; Dallas won in overtime, however.

Jesper Wallstedt made 25 saves for his 17th win, which set a franchise record for a rookie goalie, and Marcus Johansson scored his 200th career goal in the third period. Joel Eriksson Ek tacked on an empty-netter.

Seattle is a long shot to make the playoffs, but the Kraken didn’t play like it — especially on the second night of a back-to-back.

They capitalized first, 10:23 into the first period, on a five-hole one-timer by Brandon Montour, but the Wild answered back just 1:34 later on a Boldy deflection.

The goal was immediately waved off despite Boldy celebrating like there was no question he scored … and there wasn’t: After a lengthy review, video showed the rebound from Eriksson Ek’s shot went off Seattle goalie Joey Daccord’s arm, hit Boldy in the chest and then bounced into the net off Boldy’s stick.

His 42 goals matched Eric Staal (2017-18) and Marian Gaborik (2007-08) for the fourth most in a Wild season. Boldy has four goals in his last four games.

But the Kraken went into the first intermission ahead 2-1 after connecting on another five-hole one-timer, this time by Adam Larsson at 13:10.

Only 38 seconds into the second period, the Wild responded when Yakov Trenin handed off to Foligno, who slid in a backhander during a 3-on-2 rush for their line with Michael McCarron.

Foligno finished an assist shy of a Gordie Howe hat trick.

He fought Jamie Oleksiak after Foligno crunched Ryker Evans into the boards in the first period.

Seattle appeared to retake the lead about a minute later on a Jaden Schwartz shot, but Wallstedt immediately indicated interference by waving his glove.

Sure enough, Frederick Gaudreau, in his first game back in Minnesota since last summer’s offseason trade to the Kraken, made contact with Wallstedt by pushing his stick down on Wallstedt’s glove, and the goal was overturned.

Back to 2-2, the Wild eventually went on their first and only power play, and just seconds after it expired, Tarasenko deposited a rebound behind an unsuspecting Daccord, who totaled 24 saves.

Ryan Hartman and captain Jared Spurgeon assisted on the goal. The assist extended Hartman’s point streak to a career-best seven games. Spurgeon, with 314 career assists and 437 points, tied Ryan Suter for the most assists by a defenseman in franchise history and Gaborik for the third-most points.

In the third, Johansson was left alone at the back post to whack in a Boldy pass at 6:49. Then with 2:43 left, Eriksson Ek dumped his 19th goal into an empty net.

Seattle went 0 for 3 on the power play.

The Wild are 6 for 6 in coach’s challenges after successfully checking for goalie interference for the first time this season; their other five challenges were for offsides.

The Wild’s matchup with the Stars at 8 p.m. Thursday is an ESPN +/Hulu broadcast.