In his first game back from a five-game injury absence, Joel Eriksson Ek quickly reminded the Wild on Thursday what he brings to the table.
Not that his teammates had forgotten. He’s the Wild’s top-line center, plays on the first power play and penalty kill units and started the night second in goals and points to linemate Kirill Kaprizov.
Those two combined for Minnesota’s first goal in a 3-1 victory over the skidding San Jose Sharks at Xcel Energy Center, Eriksson Ek tapping in a tape-to-tape pass from Kaprizov with 3:59 left in the first period. It was the first of two assists for Kaprizov.
It was Eriksson Ek’s 30th goal of the season, marking his first 30-goal NHL campaign and making him the 11th Wild player to achieve that feat.
Matt Boldy scored the go-ahead goal early in the third period, and Filip Gustavsson stopped 26 shots to improve to 3-0-1 in his past five games, four of them starts. Ryan Hartman sealed the win with an empty-net goal with 53.3 seconds left.
The victory kept alive the Wild’s slim hopes of earning a postseason spot. They started the night 10th in the Western Conference, nine points behind Vegas for the Western Conference’s eighth and final playoff spot and three behind St. Louis and now have 10 regular-season games remaining.
Since the NHL moved to an 80-game schedule in 1974-75, no team has ever made the postseason after being more than seven points out through 70 games.
Vegas was playing at Winnipeg, and the Blues were host to Calgary on Thursday.
Eriksson Ek became just the 11th Wild player to score 30 goals in a season, joining Matt Boldy, Kevin Fiala, Marian Gaborik (5), Ryan Hartman, Kirill Kaprizov (3), Zach Parise, Jason Pominville, Brian Rolston (3), Eric Staal and Jason Zucker.
Former Wild center Mikael Granlund scored San Jose’s goal, and Mackenzie Blackwood stopped 30 shots for the Sharks, who have now lost 19 of their past 21 games (2-15-4) and are flirting with one of the 20 worst NHL seasons since 1974-75.
The teams are scheduled to meet again April 13 in San Jose.
Related Articles
Down time hasn’t been good for Wild’s playoff prospects
Wild hoping to get two key players back for Thursday’s game vs. San Jose
Wild get good news on injured stars Joel Eriksson Ek and Jonas Brodin
Wild lose Joel Eriksson Ek at a bad time, again
Leave a Reply