Wild thump Sharks

In San Jose, the Minnesota Wild scored early and often and handed the Sharks a 6-2 loss on Monday night.

The Wild posted two goals in the first and three in the middle frame.

Mats Zuccarello drove the offense with a goal and four points on the night.

“Feels good when the puck finds you,” Zuccarello said. “That’s a good feeling. And it obviously feels good to help contribute to a win.

“I feel like the whole team is playing the same way, there’s chemistry on all the lines, and three wins in a row, that makes you feel good.”

Kaapo Kahkonen made 31 saves in the win.

Brent Burns and Logan Couture were the goal scorers for the Sharks.

“It was one of those games I thought, obviously, our start was good … but every time we had good momentum shifts, I have to give their goalie credit. He made some big saves at the right times,” San Jose head coach Bob Boughner said. “He made some saves and we just couldn’t find the goal we needed at the right time.”

Burns’ goal came with just 45 seconds gone in the game, for a 1-0 lead.

“Any momentum builders, you don’t want to give up one (goal), you definitely don’t want to give up two,” Burns said. “Yeah, you don’t want to do that.”

Zuccarello tied it at 1-1, and Kirill Kaprizov and Ian Cole gave the Wild a 3-1 lead.

“It’s great when a team can score many different ways,” Cole said. “We had had a little trouble scoring goals early in the season, but we always knew we had the skill to do it. … Right now, we’re starting to figure it out, and we have to keep doing it.

“The 15th game of the year doesn’t really mean much. We have to do it the rest of the year and through the playoffs.”

Marcus Foligno pushed the lead to 4-1 in the second period.

“I think the group has confidence for sure,” Minnesota coach Dean Evason said. “Clearly you feel good about yourself when you can score goals and defend as well. We’ve been real good at taking it one game at a time, and clearly we’ve got to continue to do that.”

After the Sharks cut the Wild lead to 4-2 in the middle frame, Jonas Brodin  potted a power-play marker to make it 5-2.

Victor Rask added an empty-net goal with just over three minutes left in the game.

Devan Dubnyk, who made 12 saves in the loss.

“We weren’t good enough offensively,” Couture said. “We had spurts, but I didn’t think there was much sustained pressure. … There’s goals out there for us to score, there’s opportunities. … We have to work a little bit harder to find those goals.”