Erik Karlsson had a goal and three assists and James Reimer made 24 saves to lead the San Jose Sharks to a 5-2 victory over the visiting Minnesota Wild on Thursday night.
It was the third four-point game of the season for Karlsson, who leads all NHL defensemen with 46 points.
Timo Meier had a goal and an assist and Noah Gregor, Oskar Lindblom and Kevin Labanc also scored goals for San Jose, which snapped a three-game losing streak with just its fourth regulation win in 19 home games this season.
Joel Eriksson Ek and Mats Zuccarello scored goals for Minnesota, which had its season-best, six-game winning streak snapped. Filip Gustavsson stopped 20 of 24 shots while having a personal six-game winning streak come to an end.
Karlsson needed just 44 seconds to give San Jose a 1-0 lead with his 13th goal of the season. He extended his personal point streak to nine games when he slapped in a Jaycob Megna pass into an open net.
Minnesota tied it at the 2:20 mark of the opening period on a breakaway goal by Eriksson Ek, his 12th tally of the season.
San Jose regained the lead later in the period when Gregor backhanded a rebound of a Karlsson shot into an open net for his second goal of the season.
The Sharks then took advantage of a five-minute major on Wild forward Mason Shaw for kneeing Evgeny Svechnikov along the boards midway through the second period. San Jose extended its lead to 3-1 as Meier scored his 18th goal of the season on a slap shot through traffic from the top of the left circle.
Lindblom then made it 4-1 just as the penalty expired when he tapped in a backdoor rebound of a Karlsson shot for his second goal of the season.
The Wild cut it to 4-2 with just six seconds left in the middle period. Zuccarello fired a wrist shot from the left circle off a Kirill Kaprizov feed over Reimer's shoulder for his 15th goal of the season.
Labanc sealed the win with a power-play empty-netter with 13.5 seconds remaining, his eighth goal of the season.
--Field Level Media
Minnesota | San Jose | |
Joel Eriksson Ek 1 | Points | Erik Karlsson 4 |
Joel Eriksson Ek 1 | Goals | Erik Karlsson 1 |
Matt Boldy 1 | Assists | Erik Karlsson 3 |
N/A | Power Play Goals | Timo Meier 1 |
N/A | Short Handed Goals | N/A |
Filip Gustavsson .833 | Save Percentage | James Reimer .923 |
Filip Gustavsson 20 | Saves | James Reimer 24 |
Team | Shots | Goals | Power Play | Penalty Kill | Penalty Mins | Face Offs Won |
Minnesota | 26 | 2 | 0-4 | 4-6 | 28 | 28 |
San Jose | 25 | 5 | 2-6 | 4-4 | 13 | 29 |