Eriksson Ek gets 4 goals after also missing extended time; Celebrini has 5 points, nets 1st NHL hat trick for San Jose
SJS at MIN | Recap
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Kirill Kaprizov scored his second of the game at 1:01 of overtime, and the Minnesota Wild recovered for an 8-7 win against the San Jose Sharks at Xcel Energy Center on Wednesday.
Kaprizov, who missed the past 28 games with a lower-body injury, ended it with a one-timer from the right circle off a give-and-go with Mats Zuccarello.
“It was not our best defense game. But it’s nice win,” Kaprizov said. “We take these two points.”
Joel Eriksson Ek had four goals in his first game back after missing 21 with a lower-body injury, and Matt Boldy had four assists for Minnesota (43-29-7), which holds the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference ahead of the St. Louis Blues. Each team has 93 points, but the Wild have a game in hand.
“Obviously (Eriksson Ek) and Kirill were huge difference makers in the game,” Wild coach John Hynes said. “I’m happy for a lot of different reasons in that respect. It’s hard on those guys. They’re obviously tremendous competitors, they mean so much to the team and personally, they [want to] play and that was a lot of time off, a lot of rehab, a lot of dark days for them as well. Can they come back? Will they come back? And you know, you progress and there’s a setback or you progress and you’re not really what you need to be, but I give those guys credit, I give our training staff, our doctors and our strength and conditioning coaches credit, the guys were ready to play and they were huge difference makers in the game.”
SJS@MIN: Kaprizov fires home the OT winner in his return from injury
Marc-Andre Fleury, who will retire at the end of the season, made 24 saves in what was likely the final regular-season home start of his NHL career.
“Oh man, jeez. Ups and downs in the game,” Fleury said. “As a goalie, those aren’t the most fun games to play. You know, too many goals going in. But what matters, two points at the end, right? We’ll take them, that’s for sure.”
Macklin Celebrini scored his first NHL hat trick and had two assists for San Jose (20-47-11), which has lost seven in a row (0-5-2). Will Smith had a goal and three assists, and Alexandar Georgiev made 36 saves.
“We just got a good look at the future, didn’t we?” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “Was one of [Celebrini’s] better games here as of late, obviously with points and whatnot. And then Will as well. Even (Kovalenko) has really stepped up and played a good spot in that role. But yeah, we just got a really good look at the future.”
Tyler Toffoli gave the Sharks a 1-0 lead at 12:11 of the first period with a wrist shot from the slot that deflected past Fleury off Marco Rossi’s stick.
Marcus Johansson tied it 1-1 at 14:16, curling to the top of the left circle to take a drop pass from Frederick Gaudreau and scoring with a wrist shot from the high slot.
Brock Faber put Minnesota in front 2-1 at 18:48 with a snap shot from the high slot off a drop pass from Boldy.
The teams then combined for three goals in 1:06, and six total goals in the second period.
“Yeah, depending on the time on the clock, it was back and forth,” Boldy said. “Not our best but [we] found a way to win and that’s all that matters. Take what we can. We scored a lot of goals, if you want to look at a positive. But yeah, we can be better for sure.”
Celebrini tied it 2-2 at 7:29, losing Faber in front to score from the top of the crease, but Eriksson Ek put Minnesota back on top 3-2 at 7:47 when he scored on his third effort during a goalmouth scramble.
Carl Grundstrom tied it 3-3 at 8:35, jamming in a loose puck in the crease after Fleury knocked down Cameron Lund’s shot.
Celebrini put the Sharks ahead 4-3 at 12:28 with a one-timer in front.
“I thought we played pretty good,” Celebrini said. “We kept going, we kept pushing. We never really gave up. And I think that shows a lot to our group.”
SJS@MIN: Celebrini regains the lead with a one-timer
Kaprizov responded to tie it 4-4 at 17:02 with a power-play goal, taking a cross-ice pass from Zuccarello and scoring with a snap shot from a tight angle at the bottom of the right circle.
Eriksson Ek made it 5-4 on the power play at 19:48, burying a loose puck in the crease.
Eriksson Ek completed his hat trick to make it 6-4 at 1:02 of third period, again on the power play, when he found a rebound at the top of the crease and chipped it past Georgiev. He added his fourth goal to extend the lead to 7-4 at 2:06 with a one-timer in the slot.
“Good bounces,” Eriksson Ek said. “They chirped me, or (Wild forward Ryan Hartman) did, that they were all in the crease, so the fourth (goal) was a little bit better.”
SJS@MIN: Eriksson Ek fires in a one-timer for his fourth
Nikolai Kovalenko brought it to 7-5 at 4:44 after Celebrini found him cutting to the slot.
Celebrini cut it to 7-6 at 10:00 with a backdoor tap in off a wraparound pass from Smith, who then beat Fleury with a wrist shot from the top of the right circle to tie it 7-7 at 19:08 with Georgiev on the bench for an extra attacker.
“I think the comeback in the third is really big for us, but that’s a really tough one in the end,” Smith said.
NOTES: The Vancouver Canucks and Utah Hockey Club, each chasing in the wild-card race, were eliminated from playoff contention with Minnesota’s win. … Sharks defenseman Mario Ferraro left the game in the second period after blocking a shot from Boldy off his leg. There was no update after the game. … Eriksson Ek and Smith’s hat tricks were the second dueling three-goal efforts of the season (also Sidney Crosby and Evgenii Dadonov on April 5). … Fleury (13-9-1) will conclude 2024-25 with more wins than losses, marking the 19th winning season of his career to surpass Patrick Roy (18) for the second-most in NHL history. Martin Brodeur (20) tops the list.
