Minnesota is tied with the Edmonton Oilers for the NHL lead with 20 first-period goals.
“It’s kind of been like that all year for us,” McCarron said. “I think we’ve been having really good starts.”
Eriksson Ek pushed the advantage to 3-0 42 seconds into the second period. Flyers defenseman Jamie Drysdale hit the referee with an attempted outlet pass and the puck stayed in the zone. Vladar stopped Boldy’s shot from the left circle, but kicked the rebound to Eriksson Ek, who scored from in front.
“Obviously a frustrating play for them,” Boldy said. “They just try to kind of get it out, but get a good bounce and we end up scoring. It’s unfortunate for them.”
Boldy said his shot went exactly how he planned it.
“I’m shooting for the pad,” he said. “‘Eky’ is usually always going right to the net, so it was kind of just one of those situations where it seemed right.”
It was a play Tocchet believes his team can learn from.
“Boldy on the third goal, he shoots for a rebound,” Tocchet said. “He doesn’t try to score. We try to score from those places, and we shoot the puck wide. We call them location shots. Make the goalie handle it, maybe there’s a rebound. So we have to get better at another level because you can’t have 23 missed shots. We’ve got to hit the net. We had two empty nets and we don’t score there. Those are the difference makers.”