*Photo from The Olympian*
That hockey team in Minnesota just keeps on chugging. Kevin Fiala scored, Jared Spurgeon scored the game winning goal, and the Minnesota Wild defeated the San Jose Sharks with a 5-4 overtime win on Sunday evening in St. Paul.
By getting the game to overtime, the Wild secured a playoff berth. It's the 3rd straight season that they've made the playoffs, and the 9th time in 10 years they've secured a berth in the playoffs. But they weren't happy with just overtime and securing a berth, they wanted the win to top it all off. They got it.
Fiala said of clinching a playoff spot that "It's a tough league. It's the hardest league in the world. You want to do it every year, so it's just great. Just great for us to make it. That was our goal from the beginning, and we're here right now, but it's nothing. It's regular season and we have still seven more to go. And still the second place, still the home advantage there we want to take. And from there it starts. The playoff is not here yet."
Getting the start was Marc-Andre Fleury, putting up just enough of a good performance to give the Wild what they were looking for. In the win, Fleury stopped 26 of the 30 shots on goal that he faced, posting a .867 save percentage, improving his record to 25-22-5 in 52 starts this season.
Starting the scoring was Minnesota's Dmitry Kulikov, who scored his 6th goal of the season 6:04 into the game, putting the Wild ahead by a 1-0 score. Spurgeon followed suit, scoring his 8th goal at the 7:29 mark of the first period, making it a 2-0 Wild lead. Rudolfs Balcers got the Sharks on the board a few minutes later, making it a 2-1 game after one period.
In the second period, the Sharks quickly tied it at 2-2, with Matt Nieto scoring his 6th goal of the season just 1:19 into the second. Matt Boldy then put the Wild ahead 3-2 at the 6:37 mark of the period, his 14th goal of the season. At the 11:11 mark of the second, Noah Gregor scored his 5th goal of the season, retying the game 3-3 after two.
The 3rd period started with a bang, with Nick Bonino scoring a shorthanded goal just 1:37 into the period, putting the Sharks ahead 4-3 on his 12th goal of the season. At the 8:54 mark of the 3rd, Fiala scored his 29th goal of the season, tying the game 4-4. That set up Spurgeon, who, with an assist from Fiala, scored 1:05 into overtime, capping a 4 point game from Fiala and a playoff clinching win.
Spurgeon said of Fiala's night that "He's so dynamic. He's strong on his skates, and he can shoot, he can pass, and it's fun to watch when he gets going. He has that confidence all the time. But just right now, it seems to be like pucks are finding him and he's working very hard."
Getting the start for the Sharks was James Reimer, who got the OT loss after the Sharks took a 4-3 lead early in the 3rd period. Reimer turned aside 23 out of the 28 shots that he faced from the Wild, recording a .821 save percentage, as his record dropped to 18-16-9 on the season.
Sharks head coach Bob Boughner said that "The first thing as a coach you want your team to do is play hard, be competitive, be hard to play against. Those things are all happening. That's a real important part. The rest will follow. It's a process here and we said this over the last two years, it's slow and it's painful sometimes, but there's things going on that are good. It's a process and to be a part of it, they're going to be nights like this, and there's been quite a few of these lately."
Up next, the Wild hit the road for a Tuesday night matchup with the Montreal Canadiens, with Fleury the expected starter. The Sharks head back home, hosting the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday, with Reimer likely to start.
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