In St Paul, the Minnesota Wild’s Kevin Fiala scored midway through the third period on Sunday to tie the San Jose Harks, 4-4, and force extra time.
“It’s always nice to make the playoffs,” Fiala said. “It’s a tough league. It’s the hardest league in the world. You want to do it every year, so it’s just great. Just great for us to make it. That was our goal from the beginning, and we’re here right now, but it’s nothing. It’s [regular season] and we have still seven more to go. And still the second place (in the Central Division), still the home advantage there we want to take. And from there it starts. The playoff is not here yet.”
Jared Spurgeon won it for the Wild with 65 seconds gone in the extra session, 5-4.
“I think you can tell when [Fiala’s] taking over a game,” Spurgeon said. “He’s so dynamic. He’s strong on his skates, and he can shoot, he can pass, and it’s fun to watch when he gets going. He has that confidence all the time. But just right now, it seems to be like pucks are finding him and he’s working very hard.”
Marc-Andre Fleury made 26 saves in the Wild win.
The Wild improved to 47-21-7.
Minnesota punched its playoff ticket with the decision.
After the Wild took a 2-0 lead, Rudolfs Balcers, and Matt Nieto tied the game, 2-2.
“It’s crazy how close we are on a lot of nights,” Sharks coach Bob Boughner said. “I’ve never been through anything like this as a coach or as a player, losing this many games.
“The first thing as a coach you want your team to do is play hard, be competitive, be hard to play against. Those things are all happening. That’s a real important part. The rest will follow. It’s a process here and we said this over the last two years, it’s slow and it’s painful sometimes, but there’s things going on that are good. It’s a process and to be a part of it, they’re going to be nights like this, and there’s been quite a few of these lately.”
San Jose dropped to 29-34-12.
Spurgeon also scored in regulation.
“I just remember kind of picking it up in the corner and then try to pass it to ‘D’ up top, and then kind of looking up and then seeing the other Minnesota forward, and I was like, ‘Oh, that’s not really a good play,'” Bordeleau said. “But somehow it got through and got lucky and my linemate just got a good shot off of it and, obviously, it went in.”
Matt Boldy and Dmitry Kulikov also scored for Minnesota.
“We almost got what we deserved tonight,” Wild coach Dean Evason said. “We were very fortunate, really, to have success in that game.”
After Body’s goal put the Wild up, 3-2, Noah Gregor and Nick Bonino scored to give the Sharks a 4-3 lead in the third period.
James Reimer made 23 saves. in the Sharks loss.
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