The Minnesota Wild realized just how badly they missed Kirill Kaprizov and Joel Eriksson Ek on Wednesday night. The two star forwards combined for six goals and an assist in their respective returns, powering a crazy 8-7 victory over the San Jose Sharks that brought the team closer to the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

In the process, Eriksson Ek became just the second player during the 2024-25 campaign to score four goals in a game — and the first Wild player since Marian Gaborik to pot four tallies, per NHL Public Relations.

Gaborik scored five goals in December of 2007; he's the only other skater in franchise history to score four or more.

“Obviously Eriksson Ek and Kirill were huge difference makers in the game,” Wild coach John Hynes said afterwards, per NHL.com's Jessi Pierce. “I'm happy for a lot of different reasons in that respect. It's hard on those guys. They're obviously tremendous competitors, they mean so much to the team and personally, they [want to] play and that was a lot of time off, a lot of rehab, a lot of dark days for them as well.

“Can they come back? Will they come back? And you know, you progress and there's a setback or you progress and you're not really what you need to be, but I give those guys credit, I give our training staff, our doctors and our strength and conditioning coaches credit, the guys were ready to play and they were huge difference makers in the game.”

The four goals were a career-high for Eriksson Ek; he missed 21 games with his injury. Kaprizov scored two goals in the game, including the overtime winner, and added an assist in his first game back from surgery to rehab a lower-body injury.

Both star forwards were catalysts of the triumph, and will be crucial if the squad hopes to make a run in the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Wild close to returning to playoffs after 2024 miss

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After failing to advance to the dance in 2023-24, the Wild look well-positioned to return to the playoffs after a Calgary Flames overtime loss to the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday night.

Now 43-29-7 with three games left in their regular-season, Minnesota is tied with the St. Louis Blues for the final wildcard berth in the Western Conference. The Vancouver Canucks and Utah Hockey Club were both eliminated from contention on Wednesday night.

The Flames are a full five points back, and barring a miracle, they'll also be on the outside looking in when the season concludes on April 17.

Marc-Andre Fleury, who will retire at the end of the year after winning three Stanley Cups, made 24 saves. It was likely the final regular-season home start of his National Hockey League career.

Although he would have liked a few of the goals back, this will be his 19th winning season in the league, passing Patrick Roy (18) for second-most in NHL history, per Pierce.

The Wild will play the Flames and Canucks on the road before concluding their regular-season against the Ducks at the Xcel Energy Center on April 15.