The Minnesota Wild took a 3-1 lead into the third period in their match with the Sharks in San Jose Sunday.
But the Sharks rallied for two third period goals to force extra time.
“As soon as I lost the puck I was kind of frustrated with myself, but they gave it right back to me,” Niederreiter said. “I was happy to shoot that puck right away.”
But Nino Niederreiter struck at 3:26 of overtime to help the Wild recover for a 4-3 win.
Alex Stalock made 31 saves to pick up the win.
“He’s (Stalock) a competitor,” Eric Staal said . “You love playing in front of a guy like him. He competes every day in practice, he competes every game. He’s talking out there. He fought hard. It was nice to be able to get the win for him, but he made some big saves.
“He made a lot of scramble saves. They were really attacking. When they get humming and they get shooting from the point, it’s difficult. He needed to be real solid for us, and he was.”
The Sharks trailed 3-0 before getting a goal in the middle frame.
Brent Burns continued to heat up with two power play goals and Tomas Hertl added a single marker for San Jose.
“We don’t have any doubt we can work ourselves back,” Burns said. “It’s not easy, but we don’t have that doubt.”
The Wild had their own two-goal scorer in Staal; Ryan Murphy gave the Wild a 1-0 lead.
“I thought it was a great character win. And to win for Alex [Stalock], I think guys were really working hard to get that for him. Had a little bit of bad luck where they caught up, but in the end I think they’re all pretty happy,” Wild head coach Bruce Boudreau said after the OT win.
[WATCH: All Wild vs. Sharks highlights]
Martin Jones made 20 saves in taking the loss.
“We have a resilient group, a confident group, ” Sharks head coach Peter DeBoer said. “It was a gutsy effort by us. Our sixth game in 10 nights, including traveling back from the East last week. It’s back-to-backs against a team that was rested and waiting for us.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.