The Wild looked like a different team on Tuesday night. The question is whether it was just a sugar rush from a coaching change or the Wild have found a more permanent solution to their many issues.

Joel Eriksson Ek, Freddy Gaudreau and Matt Boldy scored goals, and Filip Gustavsson stopped 22 shots as the Wild beat the St. Louis Blues, 3-1, at Xcel Energy Center in their first game with new coach John Hynes on the bench.

Hynes was introduced as the Wild’s new coach on Tuesday morning, just hours after Dean Evason was relieved of his duties in the wake of a seven-game losing streak. It appeared to get the players’ attention.

Gaudreau and Jared Spurgeon earned their first points of the season, and Boldy scored his second goal of the season on a breakaway to make it 3-1 with 2 minutes, 52 seconds remaining.

In addition, Minnesota’s beleaguered penalty kill — the NHL’s worst (23 goals, 66.7 percent heading into the game — was unscored upon in three chances. That included a 4-minute high-sticking minor on Boldy midway through the third period. They also killed the last 2:32 after St. Louis pulled goaltender Jordan Binnington.

Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson was magnificent, stopping 22 shots, including a large handful of juicy scoring chances, such as point-blank shots from the crease by Pavel Buchnevich in the first period and Robert Thomas in the third.

Colton Parayko scored for St. Louis, and Binnington stopped 34 shots, but the Wild dictated play for most of the game to win for the first time since a 4-2 victory over the Islanders on Nov. 7.

Playing without suspended center Ryan Hartman, the Wild took just its eighth 1-0 lead this season early. Mats Zuccarello took a pass behind the net from Jared Spurgeon and found Eriksson Ek alone at the bottom of the right circle. Eriksson Ek’s one-timer found a small space between Binnington’s leg and glove and the Wild had a lead just 2 minutes, 41 seconds into the game.

The Blues tied it a little under 8 minutes later when St. Louis went scoreless on a power play but kept the Wild pinned in their own end. Colton Parayko finally but the Blues on the board when his snap shot from the right circle beat Gustavsson nearside to make it 1-1.

The Wild, however, regained the lead late in the period.

After Jonas Brodin kept the zone with a shot that caromed high off Marcus Foligno’s stick, Pat Maroon corralled it behind the net and found Gaudreau alone in the right circle.

His pass went to Gaudreau’s backhand side, but the third-line center got it to his forehand and sent a wrist shot on net. Deflected slightly by the stick of St. Louis center Brayden Schenn, the puck floated through traffic and past a shielded Binnington for a 2-1 lead at 18:10.

It was the first point in 10 games for Gaudreau, who missed seven games with a rib injury suffered Oct. 14 in Toronto.

The Wild’s first-period lead was just its third in 20 games this season, and while Minnesota dominated the second period — outshooting the Blues 17-5 — they took that 2-1 advantage into the third period, only the fourth time they had done that this season.