MINNEAPOLIS — The Wild is officially playoff bound.
A 5-4 overtime win against the Sharks on Sunday in front of 19,029 at Xcel Energy Center sealed the team's berth, the 12th in franchise history and ninth over the last 10 years, and in the process the Wild reached 100 points for the fifth time and fourth over the past eight seasons.
At 101, the Wild remains third in the Central Division, one point shy of the second-place Blues, who also won on Sunday to maintain the positioning it plucked from the Wild with an overtime victory on Saturday.
Kevin Fiala capped off a four-point effort with his 30th goal of the season 1 minute, 5 seconds into overtime.
Before then, a deflection by Fiala tied the game 8:54 into the third after San Jose moved ahead on a shorthanded tally from Nick Bonino at 1:37.
The Wild was actually up by two goals early in the first period after shots 1:25 apart from its blue line: Dmitry Kulikov (6:04) and captain Jared Spurgeon (7:29).
But the Sharks didn't fade despite toting a season-long nine-game losing streak into action.
A Rudolfs Balcers shot went five-hole on Wild goalie Marc-Andre Fleury at 9:38 of the first, and then Matt Nieto scored the equalizer 1:19 into the second off the rush.
Matt Boldy pulled the puck out of traffic and wired it by San Jose goalie James Reimer at 6:37 to regain the lead for the Wild, but the Sharks again answered back when Noah Gregor buried a rebound behind Fleury 11:11 into the second.
Fiala also assisted on a pair of goals to total 12 points during a six-game point streak. His line finished with nine points; Boldy had an assist to go along with his goal, and Gaudreau picked up three assists.
Boldy (five games) and Gaudreau (four) are on career-high point streaks. Overall, Boldy has 14 goals he joined Kirill Kaprizov and Filip Kuba as the only rookies in Wild history to record 20 assists.
Fleury posted 26 saves, and Reimer had 23.
The Wild went 0-for-5 on the power play and San Jose was 0-for-3.
