Whenever the Wild had reason to celebrate, the Hurricanes crashed their party.

The Wild were one-upped all Thursday night, getting dumped, 4-3, at Lenovo Center in Raleigh, N.C., to have their modest two-game win streak end.

Carolina retaliated after every Wild goal, including scoring twice during a three-goal, 52-second blitz for both teams in a hectic first period that saw the Wild’s Tyler Pitlick get ejected.

But the Hurricanes’ fastest response time was in the second period, with Nikolaj Ehlers’ 9-second reply to a 3-3 tie giving Carolina a lead the home team would hold on to for the rest of the game.

Jackson Blake also had a goal for the Hurricanes in addition to picking up an assist, while Wild forward Matt Boldy netted a pair to end his six-game drought.

Goaltender Filip Gustavsson, who usually thrives against Carolina, stopped 23 of 27 shots. The Hurricanes’ Frederik Andersen wasn’t much better despite a lighter workload; Andersen was beat on the first two shots he faced before finishing with 19 saves.

How it happened

In his 300th NHL game, Boldy kicked off a five-goal first period at 5:34 when he buried a loose puck hauled to the front of the Carolina net by Kirill Kaprizov.

Then just past the midway point of the period, Pitlick hit the Hurricanes’ Jalen Chatfield and was given a match penalty for an illegal check to the head, putting the Wild down a forward for the rest of the night.

Carolina captain Jordan Staal fought Pitlick in the aftermath and because Staal was called for instigating, action shifted to 4-on-4 and both sides took advantage.

Blake polished off a near end-to-end rush at 12:53 and 31 seconds later, Kaprizov handed off to Brock Faber for a one-timer. Marcus Johansson’s assist on the play extended his career-high point streak to seven games.

Another 21 seconds after that, the Hurricanes secured their second equalizer when Andrei Svechnikov skated through the Wild before wiring the puck by Gustavsson.

Sean Walker was the next to elude Gustavsson, who unsuccessfully waved his glove at Walker’s shot through traffic with 3:09 to go in the first.

Turning point

The Wild looked ready to capitalize on a fresh start in the second period.

At 37 seconds, Boldy redirected in a Vladimir Tarasenko feed on the power play (1 for 3) for a 3-3 tie and Boldy’s first two-goal game of the season.

But once again, Carolina answered back in a hurry.

A breezy 9 seconds after Boldy scored, Blake gobbled up a Faber turnover and set up a net-crashing Ehlers for the put-back.

Key stat

The Wild and Hurricanes combined for the fastest three goals and two goals in the NHL this season.

What it means

What a wasted opportunity for the Wild, who have been a challenging matchup for Carolina in recent seasons.

Despite draining three of their first four shots against Andersen, the Wild didn’t up the pressure until the third period — and their limited output wasn’t because most of their attempts missed the net or were getting blocked.

No, the Wild simply weren’t generating enough.

To make matters worse, the Hurricanes weren’t running up the shot clock like they usually do and went 0 for 2 on the power play, emphasizing how much of a what-if loss this is.

The Wild did have their best effort late but by then, Andersen was in enough of a groove to withstand the threat.

Boldy’s three shots were tied for the most on the team, while rookie defenseman Zeev Buium had two. Buium played with Daemon Hunt, who made his season debut after the defenseman was claimed off waivers from the Blue Jackets last month to rejoin the organization that drafted him; David Jiricek was scratched.

Up next

This road trip concludes Friday in New York against the Islanders, who have been off since a 4-3 shootout loss to the Bruins on Tuesday.

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