» STALOCK, WILD UPEND SHARKS
SAN JOSE — No scoreboard watching was needed since help from another team was unnecessary.
The math was simple: win and claim a playoff spot for the first time in three months.
And given the chance to dictate its own fate, the Minnesota Wild finally made the leap — shrugging off the San Jose Sharks 3-2 Thursday in front of 14,517 at SAP Center to move into the first wild card seed with 75 points after securing its fifth victory over its last six games at the outset of a threegame West Coast road trip.
Vancouver, Nashville, Winnipeg and Arizona (all at 74 points) now trail the Wild, which occupies a playoff berth for the first time since Dec. 6.
Like the rest of the team’s recent success stories, the formula against San Jose was steady goaltending and timely goal scoring.
In his sixth straight start, goalie Alex Stalock made 40 saves to improve to 9-2-1 over his past 12. Defenseman Ryan Suter and winger Zach Parise each had a goal and assist. And fellow winger Kevin Fiala had a slick setup to push his point streak to six games, a span in which he’s tallied 12 points.
After weathering an early push by the Sharks, the Wild opened the scoring 8 minutes, 34 seconds into the first period after Suter’s point shot sailed in following a faceoff win by captain Mikko Koivu that was passed off to Suter by winger Ryan Hartman.
San Jose pulled even at 14:40 on its lone power play goal in three chances, a deflection by winger Stefan Noesen. The Wild earned just one power play, blanking on it, but that didn’t prevent the team from taking control of the game in the second period.
At 11:30, center Alex Galchenyuk scored his second with the team when his backhand flew by Sharks goalie Martin Jones — a shot orchestrated by Parise and Suter.
By 14:48, the Wild doubled its lead on a slick sequence masterminded by Fiala.
He cut to the middle with speed, handed off to center Luke Kunin and Kunin fed a net-crashing Parise for the redirect past Jones. The San Jose netminder finished with 24 saves.
The goal extended Parise’s goal streak to four games, which is tied for his longest of the season, and his point streak is at five games — a run in which he’s racked up eight points. He leads the team with 25 goals and has scored at least that many 10 times now in his career.
Fiala didn’t record multiple points for the first time in six games, and his five-game goal streak also came to an end. But his point streak is alive, with 12 points during the six-game stretch, and Fiala has 24 points over his past 16. His 52 points overall are also the most on the Wild.
That finish by Parise and the revamped top line (Parise and Kunin joined Fiala after center Eric Staal didn’t travel to San Jose following a death in his family) turned clutch in the third.
It was during that period the Sharks applied the most pressure all game, throwing 20 shots on net and finally solving Stalock at 9:08 when center Joe Thornton buried a loose puck in front after Stalock kept the puck out just seconds earlier on a key save.
But the Wild held on the rest of the way despite the lopsided look, an effort that nabbed Stalock his 20th victory of the season.