This was Eriksson Ek's first game back after sitting out five with a lower-body injury.

Jonas Brodin also suited up for the Wild after a lower-body injury kept him out of the team's last two games, which were both losses; the Wild were blown out, 6-0, by Los Angeles on March 20 before kicking off this six-game homestand in St. Paul last Saturday by getting dumped, 5-4 in overtime, by St. Louis.

But the Wild had another key player in Marcus Foligno exit the lineup; coach John Hynes mentioned Thursday morning there was a forward who was questionable to play due to injury, and Foligno missed a practice earlier in the week for maintenance.

Eriksson Ek's return meant the Wild could reunite their top line, and Kaprizov assisted on the Wild's first two goals to reach 81 points.

He's the first player in Wild history to record multiple 80-point seasons; his other campaign was 2021-22 when he set a franchise record with 108 points.

Eriksson Ek's goal was one of 15 first-period shots by the Wild — the Sharks had only one — and the Wild's inability to manufacture more offense from those looks became costly in the second.

That's when San Jose upped the intensity.

Not only did the Sharks outshoot the Wild 9-7, but they scored the equalizer at 9:26 when Mikael Granlund capped off a 3-on-1 rush by batting in a puck that deflected off Wild defenseman Declan Chisholm's stick.

Neither power play capitalized with the Wild going 0 for 2 and San Jose 0 for 1.

The Wild and Sharks were also tied after two periods in their previous meeting on March 3.

After falling behind early in the third, the Wild rallied because Kaprizov completed a hat trick.

A similar script played out in the rematch, this time with Boldy providing the tiebreaker before a Saturday matinee vs. Vegas, which occupies the final wild-card seed in the West.

Blackwood ended up making 29 stops, while Filip Gustavsson had 26 to win his second straight start.

©2024 StarTribune. Visit at startribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.