The Minnesota Wild honored Ray Shero before their game with San Jose on Wednesday, with the home crowd offering a moment of silence to remember the team advisor who died recently.
There was very little silence inside Xcel Energy Center after that moment.
The Wild’s lineup got healthier before the game, and their playoff position got significantly healthier via a crazy 8-7 overtime win over the San Jose Sharks.
Joel Eriksson Ek, back on the line chart for the first time in more than a month, scored four goals — three of them after the Sharks had taken a 4-3 lead in the second period — to put an exclamation point on his return from a lower-body injury. Kirill Kaprizov also returned for the first time since Jan. 26 with two goals, including his 25th of the season 1:01 into overtime for the win.
Along the way, the fans roared for Eriksson Ek’s return to the starting lineup and Kaprizov’s first shift, as the Russian star played in just his fourth game since Christmas. The crowd also saved enough cheers for goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, making his final home start of a two-decade career.
By the end, Fleury had 24 saves and the Wild had two vital standings points with a week left in the regular season, which at least temporarily gave them a six-point cushion over Calgary in the race for the final Western Conference postseason assignment.
Minnesota’s win also mathematically eliminated Utah and Vancouver from the playoffs.
Macklin Celebrini had his first NHL hat trick for the Sharks, who own the NHL’s worst record but took the lead twice on Wednesday, before falling to 0-5-2 in their last seven. Alexandar Georgiev had 36 saves for San Jose.
Trailing 4-3 late in the second, the Wild got power-play goals from Kaprizov and Eriksson Ek to lead after 40 minutes, then two more from Eriksson Ek early in the third. They held on as the Sharks made a late charge to win Minnesota’s second in a row.
After trailing briefly in the opening period, the Wild led 2-1 after one period on goals from Marcus Johansson and Brock Faber, who sent a shot through a crowd and to the back of the net with 72 seconds left in the opening frame. Minnesota had 17 first-period shots — four of them from Kaprizov.
Celebrini’s initial second-period goal forged a 2-2 tie, but it didn’t last long.
Just 18 seconds later, Eriksson Ek got a second whack at the puck in the San Jose crease and celebrated his return from more than a month lost to injury with his first goal since Jan. 26. But the visitors knotted the score at 3-3 less than a minute later.
After Celebrini gave the Sharks the lead at 4-3, the Wild got a rare four-on-three power play, which gave Kaprizov the time and space needed for a missile into the upper left corner of the net to tie the game. He had last scored in a Dec. 23 win over Chicago.
The Wild took the lead for the third time in the game with 11.9 seconds left in the middle period when Eriksson Ek swatted in a loose puck at the top of the crease on another power play. There were six goals scored in the second period.
After Minnesota went up 7-4 in the third, the Sharks again forged a tie and forced extra hockey when Will Smith scored an extra attacker goal in the final minute of regulation.
Defenseman Jake Middleton, injured in a loss to the Islanders in New York last Friday, missed his second consecutive game on Wednesday but practiced with the team earlier in the day and could potentially return to the Minnesota lineup by the weekend.
The Wild head to western Canada for their final regular season road trip, facing the Flames in Calgary on Friday and the Canucks in Vancouver on Saturday. Their final regular season game is at home on Tuesday versus the Anaheim Ducks.
