BOSTON — Playing a rookie-laden lineup missing six regulars against a rolling Bruins team could have been how the Wild sunk deeper into a funk.
Instead, that's how the team snapped out of it.
Matt Boldy scored his first goal in his NHL debut, the game-winner, to help the Wild slough off that season-long five-game rut with a 3-2 comeback on Thursday in front of 17,850 at TD Garden after losing star Kirill Kaprizov to injury.
Kaprizov left in the second period with an upper-body injury after getting crunched by Boston's Trent Frederic, who received a minor penalty for boarding to go along with a major for fighting the Wild's Dmitry Kulikov after the hit.
Frederic also fought Marcus Foligno early in the third period and ended up taking 16 minutes in penalties, nearly nine more than he played.
Since the Wild started the game with only 11 forwards, opting for seven defensemen after Brandon Duhaime was ruled out due to COVID-19 earlier in the day, Kaprizov's exit dropped the team down to 10 while it was ahead 2-1. But the short-handed offense was still effective against the Bruins, who had won three in a row.
Seconds after Frederic's boarding penalty against Kaprizov expired, the Wild doubled its lead when Boldy finished off a give-and-go with Foligno, flinging the puck over Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman at 12 minutes, 26 seconds.
In front of family and friends, Boldy, who's from Millis, Mass., and played at Boston College, became the 10th player in Wild history to score in his NHL debut. Marco Rossi also was skating in his first game, their arrivals contributing to the latest round of roster turnover for the Wild.
Aside from Duhaime, Jordan Greenway is also in the COVID-19 protocols while Nick Bjugstad, Joel Eriksson Ek, captain Jared Spurgeon and goalie Cam Talbot are all dealing with injuries.
Those absences would have been reason enough for the Wild to continue to slide, but the Wild still found a way to persevere.
Although Boston flipped the score back to a one-goal game before the second period ended on a one-timer from Brad Marchand at 15:35, the Wild fended off the Bruins in the third to seal its first win since Dec.9 in just the team's second game in 17 days.
Early on, though, the Wild fell into the same pattern from its recent losses by surrendering the first goal.
With one second left on a power play, Boston's Taylor Hall's one-timer deflected off Jonas Brodin and through Kaapo Kahkonen's legs 6:35 into the first period.
That was a 5-on-3 goal, and the Wild responded with one of its own on a shot from Kaprizov from the right circle. The goal was Kaprizov's fourth in as many games, 14th overall and eighth point during a four-game point streak.
He also became the fastest player in Wild history to record 40 points in a season, his 32-game tear eclipsing Marian Gaborik's 36-game pace.
Only 1:23 later, another Wild power-play goal put the team up 2-1.
After Nico Sturm was kicked out of the faceoff circle, Connor Dewar stepped in, won the draw back to Brodin and his shot was tipped in by Sturm for Sturm's first career power play goal. The assist was Dewar's first career point.
Overall, the Wild power play went 2 for 8 while the Bruins were 2 for 5.
Kahkonen, in his first start in almost a month, blocked 36 shots, while Swayman had 27 stops.
