The Minnesota Wild officially qualified for the National Hockey League (NHL) playoffs on Sunday by defeating the San Jose Sharks 5-4 in overtime at Xcel Energy Center.
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Jared Spurgeon deflected a Kevin Fiala shot in overtime to seal the game.
Fiala continued his impressive run by scoring four points. The Swiss was also complicit in the successes of Dmitry Kulikov and Matt Boldy, in addition to scoring the equalizing goal in the third period.
The 25-year-old forward has six goals and 12 points in his last six games.
Nick Bonino had pushed the Wild into the cables at the start of the third period by hitting the mark in numerical inferiority. Rufolfs Balcers, Matt Nieto and Noah Gregor have also demystified Marc-André Fleury.
In his first game in the NHL, Thomas Bordeleau collected an assist on the success of Balcers, in the first period.
James Reimer had much better outings, allowing five goals on just 28 shots in front of the “Sharks” cage.
Fleury was hardly more impressive between the posts of the Wild with 26 parades.