Wild hold off Sharks

In St Paul, Cam Talbot made 20 saves and the Minnesota Wild defeated the San Jose Sharks, 3-2 on Friday night.

The Sharks have four in a row, and five of six as they fade into next season.

Tomas Hertl staked the Sharks to a 1-0 lead early in the first period.

“I thought we gave ourselves a chance to win,” the Sharks’ Logan Couture said. “I thought defensively we were pretty good. We didn’t give up much, but there wasn’t much out there offensively. But we’ve got to find a way to do more. We only scored one or two over the last three or four games, so we need to find some offense.”

Nick Bonino had a goal and two points for Minnesota.

“Sometimes you get the bounces, sometimes you don’t,” Bonino said. “I feel like for the most part [Sturm], [Parise] and myself, our game hasn’t changed from game one to now. The puck didn’t go in as much as we would have liked probably the first little bit here, but just try to keep doing the right things and getting rewarded for it now. So it always feels good.”

Bonino’ s fourth line has driven much of the Wild offense over the last two games.

“They aren’t a fourth line,” Wild head coach Dean Evason said. “They played great. …They’re giving us a real boost for sure.

“I mean, clearly it’s an asset to have the depth. … There’s no question when you can just roll, and guys are trusting and making those changes at the proper time because they trust that their teammate coming out is going to have a good chance to get the job done as he is, it’s a good feeling for the group for sure.”

Mats Zuccarello and Zach Parise also scored for the Wild.

Minnesota improved to 26-13-3.

Evander Kane potted a shorthanded marker in the 15th minute of the third period to make the final few minutes of the game a little more anxious for the Wild.

“[Kane’s] had a good year for us,” Sharks head coach Bob Boughner said. “He’s a guy that always seems to have legs and brings that every night. He plays fast, and I think that’s an advantage for him. … I think he was ready to play, he was good all night.

“I think all in all we had a tough couple shifts with our fourth line on the ice and it hurt us a little bit but at the end of the day we played a pretty good road game.”

Martin Jones made 15 saves in the loss.