Wild defeat Sharks to end losing streak

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- The Minnesota Wild ended their season-long, five-game losing streak with a 3-2 win against the San Jose Sharks at Xcel Energy Center on Tuesday.
Minnesota (44-22-6) is six points behind the Chicago Blackhawks for first place in the Central Division and Western Conference. The Wild are two points from clinching a berth in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
"I thought our first period was really good," Wild coach Bruce Boudreau said. "I don't know if our first period was really good and they were coming off the tiredness and didn't have their legs yet, but I was pretty happy with that and pretty happy with some efforts on the power play. They're a good team, and you beat them three times [this season] that's pretty good."

WATCH: All Sharks vs. Wild highlights
San Jose (42-24-7) has lost four in a row. The Sharks lead the Anaheim Ducks and Edmonton Oilers by four points for first place in the Pacific Division and are four points behind the Wild for second place in the West, having played one more game.
"To be honest, we're not that concerned [about the losing streak]," San Jose captain Joe Pavelski said. "We've played games that are close games, a lot of these games are one-goal games. It's such a fine line of being on the winning side or losing side that I think we all understand that we can be a little bit better."
The teams combined to score four goals in 63 seconds near the end of the second period. It is the fastest four goals scored since the St. Louis Blues (two) and Dallas Stars (two) combined to score four in 49 seconds, over two periods, on April 3, 2015. The fastest four goals scored by two teams in one period is 53 seconds, achieved by the Blackhawks (three) and Toronto Maple Leafs (one) on Oct. 15, 1983.

"Things happen like that and it becomes crazy," Boudreau said. "We would've liked to go in with a 3-1 lead, but we wanted to make sure that we went in with a lead. We are pretty good when we've got a lead in the third period."
Sharks defenseman David Schlemko tied the game 1-1 at 17:57 of the second period. Martin Hanzal gave the Wild a 2-1 lead 33 seconds later, his first goal for Minnesota since being traded by the Arizona Coyotes on Feb. 26.
Charlie Coyle made it 3-1 at 18:45, and Patrick Marleau scored 15 seconds later to make it 3-2.
"You know what? Anybody can do anything once," Boudreau said of ending the losing streak. "So let's see how we do Thursday [against the Philadelphia Flyers]."

Goal of the game

Matt Dumba gave Minnesota a 1-0 lead at 10:29 of the first period on the power play, his third goal in five games. The Wild have scored 18 power-play goals in the past 19 games and lead the NHL in power-play percentage at home (.296).

Save of the game

Sharks goalie Martin Jones stopped Mikko Koivu at 5:33 of the second period to keep the score 1-0.

Unsung performance of the game

Zach Parise centered the puck on Dumba's goal and assisted on Coyle's goal. Parise has four assists in a three-game point streak.

Highlight of the game

Coyle scored on a one-timer 15 seconds after Hanzal. Coyle has three points (two goals, one assist) in his past three games.

They said it

"I don't think we're talking much about puck luck. We can be better. That kind of luck comes when you're on a team, when you spend lots of time in the [offensive] zone, maybe get a bounce here or there. We're not creating enough right now." -- Sharks captain Joe Pavelski
"I think the last three games, we played pretty well and didn't get the results we wanted. I thought, outside of that first period in [a 5-4 loss at the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday], we've been playing pretty good hockey, just not ending up in the win column, so it was nice to end up on that side tonight. I think we were going in the right direction, just [had] nothing to show for it." -- Wild forward Zach Parise

Need to know

Dubnyk (37-18-3) tied the Wild record for wins in a season, set by Niklas Backstrom in 2008-09. ... Sharks forward Chris Tierney returned after missing one game with illness. Defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic missed the game with the flu. Forward Jannik Hansen missed his second game with an upper-body injury. San Jose coach Peter DeBoer said there's a chance he returns during this four-game road trip. … Wild forward Eric Staal had an assist and has seven points (five goals, two assists) in his past six games.

What's next

Wild:Host the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday (8 p.m. ET; FS-N, FS-WI, CSN-PH, NHL.TV)
Sharks: At the Dallas Stars on Friday (8:30 p.m. ET; FS-SW, CSN-CA, NHL.TV)