ST. PAUL, Minn. — At least they won in regulation for a change.

In what’s got to be one of the hardest to watch games in the history of the sport of hockey, at least the Minnesota Wild didn’t make fans sit through one more agonizing second of the 3,600 seconds they had to endure during Thursday’s snooze fest of a 4-1 victory over the lowly Calgary Flames.

Thank goodness for two early goals for the Wild and two late ones that made the score seem a lot more lopsided than it was, but make no mistake, coach John Hynes and his players know Thursday’s performance was hardly pretty.

But at least for the eighth time in the past 18 games, this one didn’t drag into overtime.

“I would say the difference in the game was strong goaltending, good special teams and opportunistic scoring,” Hynes said. “I think that was the difference in the game.”

The briefness of that opening statement caused the obvious follow-up: “The first two periods, I assume you weren’t happy?

“No. Were you?” Hynes said, smiling. “Not to take anything away from Calgary, but I just felt like we got the two goals and then it was perimeter, not strong puck management, not on the inside, a lot of east-west, which is what we all saw.”

The Flames, who are the second-lowest scoring team in the NHL, have to win by clogging things up in the neutral zone and defensive zone. So even though the Wild had the puck a lot in the first 40 minutes, they only registered three first-period shots and five second-period shots because they seemed to be looking for style points with their passing.

“The one thing I will say is when you go through 82 games, they’re not all gonna be Picassos, right?” Hynes said. “But good teams find ways to win, even when you’re not at your best.”

The Wild went 3-for-3 on the penalty kill and got 29 saves from Filip Gustavsson, who improved to 9-0-5 at home since Nov. 1. The Wild finished 3-0-1 on the homestand by getting first-period goals by Danila Yurov and Vinnie Hinostroza, then a third-period power-play goal by Matt Boldy with 2:43 left before Kirill Kaprizov’s empty-netter 28 seconds later.

The Wild have three games left before the Olympic break — at the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday night, home versus the Montreal Canadiens on Monday night and at the Nashville Predators on Wednesday night.

Pass or catch of the year, or both?

Jake Middleton to Hinostroza may go down as one of the prettiest connections in Wild history.

“I feel like it was just perfect,” Hinostroza said of Middleton’s feed before scoring for a 2-0 lead. “I didn’t have to change my speed or anything.”

Middleton, the rugged, ‘stached defenseman, floated a toweringly high, blue-line-to-blue line, moon-shot pass over every player in the neutral zone to Hinostroza, who suavely managed to catch the puck while staying onside. He then placed the puck at his stick blade for his first goal since Nov. 7 to snap a 24-game personal goalless drought.

“You’re looking at so many things,” said Hinostroza, an outfielder as a kid. “Staying onside, catching the puck, and looking if their D are coming at me or if I have time. Lucky enough, I was able to do that and, you know, score a goal and help the team.”

Gustavsson kiddingly called Middleton “the flip master” because he did the same play recently for a Marcus Johansson goal.

“I didn’t know he had that in him,” Boldy joked.

“I was just trying to get it to him,” Middleton said. “However it got there, it didn’t matter. But he made a nice (grab, then a) great shot after.”

Hinostroza was relieved to score. It had been a long time, and he was excited that he scored so early in the game because his kids were likely still awake to see it on television.

“I’ve been playing for a long time, and you try to stay positive, but it would be crazy to say you don’t get in your head a little bit,” Hinostroza said. “Obviously, I know what I could do. I know how I could help this team. And anytime you could chip in, it’s great. And it has been a while, and hopefully this could start something and chip in a little more often, because I have gotten chances, but I just haven’t been converting.”

Hughes, the assist machine

Boldy scored his 29th goal on a third-period power play right before Kaprizov potted his 29th goal.

But on Boldy’s, Quinn Hughes picked up his 46th assist of the season and 25th in 23 games with the Wild. He tied Paul Coffey (23 games with the Pittsburgh Penguins) and Sergei Zubov (23 games with the Penguins) as the fastest defenseman in NHL history to record 25 assists with a franchise.

He extended his team’s single-month record with his 19th assist in January and extended his assist streak to seven games, tying Jared Spurgeon and Ryan Suter’s team record for defensemen.

Kaprizov, too, is on a heater. The reigning No. 1 Star of the Week has 14 points in his past seven assists. His 66 points rank seventh and 29 goals (along with Boldy) are tied for seventh.

Riding the Gus Bus

Thursday could have been a lot different had Gustavsson not been on his game. The Wild were outshot 13-3 in the first period, yet led 2-0. He made another seven saves in the second period and was only beaten on a Jonathan Huberdeau to Morgan Frost goal on a two-on-one.

“It feels like a pretty easy night, kind of,” Gustavsson insisted despite praise from Hynes and his teammates. “They had a few chances, and yeah, a lot of shots just make you feel more comfortable out there. It didn’t seem too bad.”

Gustavsson improved to 14-2-4 in his past 20 starts with a 2.28 goals-against average, .917 save percentage and two shutouts. In that span, he ranks third in the NHL in save percentage, fourth in goals-against average, tied for fourth in shutouts and tied for fifth in victories.

He has no regulation losses in his past 14 at home.

“It’s a great building,” Gustavsson said of his success annually at home. “We always have a lot of fans coming to our games, and they’re supporting us when we play bad as well. So, it’s fun to have them out there.”