st. Paul, Minnesota – Joel Ericson Ek has returned from a lower body injury and scored four career-high goals, while Kirill Kaprizov made his second overtime game in his first game, with the Minnesota Wild 8-7 ahead of the San Jose Sharks on Wednesday night.
Minnesota is tied with St. Louis for his second wild card at the Western Conference as the Blues lost in Edmonton on Wednesday night.
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Eriksson Ek missed his previous 21 games. Kaprizov also returned from a damage to his lower body after undergoing surgery in late January. He led the Wild with 52 points throughout 37 games before the procedure. He also missed 12 games due to injuries in late December and January.
“Clearly (Erikson Ek) and Kirill were the makers of the big difference in the game,” Wild coach John Hines told reporters. “I’m happy in that respect for a lot of different reasons. It’s difficult for those people. They’re obviously incredible competitors. [want to] Playing, it was a lot of vacation, lot of rehab, lot of dark days for them too. Can they come back? Will they come back? And you know, you progress, set fold, or you progress, you really don’t need you, but I give those people credits, I give our training staff, our doctors, our strength and conditioning coaches, they were ready to play and they were the makers of the big difference in the game. ”
Kaprizov, who also assisted against the sharks, scored the 25th goal of the season with overtime 1:01 after Will Smith tied it together with 52 seconds remaining regulations for San Jose.
Erikson Ek gave Minnesota a 3-2 lead in the second 7:29, then went on to win three straight games in a 2:18 span, making it 7-4 early in the third. His first three goals were made in power plays.
Erikson Ekh led to Marian Gaborik’s team record of five goals set on December 20, 2007.
In a move earlier on Wednesday to make room for Erikson Ek and Kaprizov, Wild reassigned Brendan Ghosse and Devin Shore to Iowa AHL affiliates.
This report uses information from the Associated Press.
