ST. PAUL, Minn. — Nick Bonino had a goal and an assist, Cam Talbot made 20 saves and the Minnesota Wild held on to defeat the San Jose Sharks 3-2 on Friday night.
Mats Zuccarello and Zach Parise also scored for the Wild, who won their second straight.
Tomas Hertl and Evander Kane scored Martin Jones stopped 15 of 18 shots for the Sharks, who lost their fourth in a row.
The teams face off again Saturday night in St. Paul.
San Jose struck first on a strong individual effort by Hertl less than four minutes into the game. Hertl gathered the puck in his own zone, played it off the sideboards to himself at center ice and skated in alone on Talbot, who let a wrist shot slip past him for Hertl’s 13th goal of the season.
The Wild tied it midway through the period on Bonino’s unassisted goal. Bonino pounced on a loose puck in the high slot and fired a quick shot that beat a screened Jones. Bonino has five points in his last two games.
Minnesota took a 2-1 lead early in the second. After Victor Rask won a faceoff in San Jose’s zone, the puck drifted over to Zuccarello, who beat Jones for his ninth goal of the season and third in two games.
Just over a minute later, Parise redirected a feed from Matt Dumba at the goalmouth to give the Wild a 3-1 lead. It was Parise’s third goal in four games and sixth of the year. Bonino picked up an assist on the play.
Talbot came up big with eight minutes left in the game as Kevin Lebanc hopped out of the penalty box and had a breakaway that Talbot snuffed out with a glove save.
That turned out to be a huge moment as Kane scored a short-handed goal two minutes later to cut the lead to 3-2. Kane poked the puck away from Kevin Fiala at the Sharks’ blue line, beat Fiala to the puck at center ice, skated in alone and beat Talbot over his shoulder for his 17th goal.
The Sharks pulled Jones for an extra man with more than 90 seconds left, but the Wild defense held on for the win.
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