Thursday, December 22, 2022 10:30 PM (ET)

Erik Karlsson's 4-point night propels Sharks past Wild

Field Level Media
Dec 23, 2022

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

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