Minnesota Wild received a major boost as Kirill Kaprizov and Joel Eriksson Ek returned to the lineup in Wednesday’s 8-7 overtime victory against the San Jose Sharks.
"Obviously (Eriksson Ek) and Kirill were huge difference-makers in the game," head coach John Hynes said postgame. "I’m happy for a lot of different reasons in that respect. It’s hard on those guys. They’re obviously tremendous competitors, they mean so much to the team and personally, they want to play, and that was a lot of time off, a lot of rehab, a lot of dark days for them as well.
"I give those guys credit, I give our training staff, our doctors, and our strength and conditioning coaches credit. The guys were ready to play."
Eriksson Ek had missed 21 games after suffering an injury during February practice.
Kaprizov had been sidelined for 28 straight games and 40 of Minnesota’s last 43 with a lower-body injury.
Kaprizov described his lengthy recovery as "boring," but his return was anything but.
The Wild held a 2-1 lead after the first period before the game turned into a scoring frenzy. The teams combined for six goals in the second period and five in the third, with San Jose scoring three consecutive goals to force overtime.
Kaprizov scored the overtime winner, his second goal of the night, bringing his season total to 25 goals in 38 games. Eriksson Ek recorded his first career four-goal game.
The offensive explosion came at a perfect time for Minnesota, which ranked last in the NHL in goals per game (2.18) since the 4 Nations Face-Off break.
"They’re our two best players," forward Matt Boldy said. "If you take any team’s two best players away, that’s a huge difference. Such an impact that those guys have in every aspect of the team."
Minnesota has now won consecutive games after securing just one victory in their previous seven contests. The Wild currently hold the Western Conference’s first wild-card position with a 43-29-7 record, five points ahead of the Calgary Flames, whom they’ll face Friday.
Goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury expressed optimism about the team’s trajectory.
"That’s the goal," Fleury said when asked if Minnesota can return to its early-season form. "That’s where we want to be, that’s where we believe we can be. … We’re getting healthy, slowly but surely.
"If tonight can be a little bit of a show of what we can do, if we keep our grinding attitude from the past couple months and add a little bit of offense here and there from these guys, I think we’ll be dangerous."
