ST. PAUL, Minn. — What had stood out to coach John Hynes about the Minnesota Wild’s recent run of success was how they were finding ways to win.

And it certainly looked like Minnesota was heading that way, controlling a good part of Tuesday’s matchup with the San Jose Sharks at Grand Casino Arena. But that’s what made this 2-1 overtime loss so hard to digest for the Wild, giving up a one-goal lead in the third and picking up their fourth overtime defeat (two coming against San Jose).

“It’s a tough loss,” Marcus Foligno said. “Dominated them for most of the game, I thought.”

The Wild, having won four of five coming in, took a 1-0 lead on a power-play goal by Matt Boldy five minutes into the second. But the problem for Minnesota was it couldn’t come up with that important insurance goal, despite outshooting the Sharks 29-18. A Will Smith power-play goal midway through the third tied the score, and Collin Graf scored the winner in OT; both were assisted by their young star, Macklin Celebrini.

The Wild lost 6-5 in overtime to the Sharks a couple of weeks ago in the same building. San Jose won its fourth straight game.

“A team like this, you need a little cushion,” goalie Filip Gustavsson said. “One power play or one chance can turn it around. One goal. That’s what happened.”

The Wild are now 1-0-1 on their five-game homestand, which continues Saturday against the Anaheim Ducks.

Celebrini comes up clutch

The Wild were in control of this game, with a one-goal lead, until midway through the third period. That’s when a David Jiricek slashing penalty gave the Sharks a power play. Minnesota’s penalty kill had been on a really good roll lately, in a 14-for-14 stretch, including the first two Tuesday.

But on this particular play, Celebrini entered the Wild zone with speed and started a smooth display of passing by San Jose. It looked like Wild defenseman Daemon Hunt was caught up a little too high near the blue line as Celebrini got behind him. Celebrini connected with his good buddy Smith for the momentum-swinging, tying goal.

Foligno said the Wild were a little “loose” near the blue line on the play, and Hynes called it a small breakdown.

ABOUT AS PERFECT OF A PASSING PLAY AS YOU COULD DRAW UP 😮‍💨 pic.twitter.com/FngYgF9nT5

— NHL (@NHL) November 12, 2025

“I mean, I had the easy job to put it in the net,” Smith said. “It was kind of a quick break-in and a little bit of a tic-tac-toe, and the next thing you know, it was on my tape.”

Celebrini, one of the league’s leading scorers, had the OT winner against the Wild on Oct. 26. Though Minnesota contained him for a good part of the night — holding him to zero shots — Celebrini delivered the two biggest plays in setting up the tying goal and OT winner.

On the winner, Mats Zuccarello lost the puck in the offensive zone and was knocked down by Celebrini. He was late to get back to defend Graf, who converted a feed from Celebrini. The Wild, coincidentally, were a finalist for Graf when the forward signed with the Sharks as a free agent.

“He’s a great player,” Foligno said of Celebrini. “He’s going to do things in the game. We did a great job, (Joel Eriksson Ek) did a great job on him. We’d like that PK goal back; we were a little bit loose at the line. And there could have been a (penalty) call in overtime. But that’s all I’m going to say about that.”

Asked what he saw on the play of the winning goal, Hynes said, “It was what it was. It probably doesn’t really matter what I think of the play. The play happened.”

Collin Graf calls game. 🔥#TheFutureIsTeal pic.twitter.com/RlQFvUXHXA

— San Jose Sharks (@SanJoseSharks) November 12, 2025

Tough night for top line

As much as Zuccarello and Kirill Kaprizov can make some magical plays — as evident in Friday’s win on Long Island — they aren’t immune to some tough games. And Tuesday was a rough one for their line with Marco Rossi, as the trio was out-attempted 17-3 in five-on-five, according to Natural Stat Trick.

Zuccarello did contribute a slick assist on the power play, sparking Boldy’s goal. He acknowledged before the game he was still working on his timing and rhythm after missing the first month of the season following surgery on a lower-body injury.

It was difficult for Zuccarello to watch the first month from afar as he recovered. Not just because Minnesota was struggling, but also because Zuccarello hoped to prevent surgery in the first place.

“I felt good all summer, worked out, worked hard and felt good,” Zuccarello said. “And then when I came to start skating (in Minnesota), I felt something that wasn’t right. It was unfortunate. I tried to not do the surgery. But at some point, it’s better to do it (surgery) and come back and try to get healthy for the rest of the season.”

Zuccarello said he had a similar surgery four or five years ago. “I guess it didn’t work.”

Net positive

Despite Jesper Wallstedt’s picking up back-to-back wins, including a 36-save shutout Sunday against the Calgary Flames, the Wild went back to their No. 1, Gustavsson, on Tuesday against the Sharks.

It had to be a tough decision for Hynes, though he indicated after Sunday’s game it was Gustavsson who was playing against San Jose. The decision was likely twofold: Wallstedt gave up six goals to the Sharks in their last meeting a couple of weeks ago, and if Gustavsson sat, it would be nine days between starts for him.

It turned into a pretty good move. Gustavsson wasn’t tested a lot early, seeing just nine shots through the first two periods. But the Swede was sharp when needed, including on a point-blank shot from the slot by Alex Wennberg midway through the second in a one-goal game. Then, five minutes into the third, Philipp Kurashev darted into the slow slot shot and Gustavsson smothered it — again, no rebounds. It was hard to blame Gustavsson for the Sharks’ power-play goal, a bang-bang play.

But Gustavsson was saddled with the loss. He still felt good about how the team was playing in front of him.

“If we can play defensively like this … we’re going to win games,” he said.

Odds and ends

a special message from Mila and Elize Johansson ahead of tonight’s ceremony celebrating their Dad’s 1000th game 🤍 pic.twitter.com/AbgOTNKJ7W

— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) November 12, 2025

• Marcus Johansson was honored for his 1,000th game, played Sunday against the Flames. Johansson’s brother, Martin, his parents, his wife, Amelia and his two daughters, Mila and Elize, were on hand. The video tribute included cool messages from former teammates, such as Nicklas Backstrom, who called him his all-time favorite linemate, “and I played with a guy who scored 900 goals (Alex Ovechkin).” Johansson’s career-long nine-game points streak was snapped.

• The Wild might have found something with their new-look fourth line. The Foligno-Danila Yurov-Yakov Trenin line has been a menace to deal with in recent games, especially Tuesday against the Sharks. Take one 70-second-plus shift in particular in the second period, when Foligno had multiple looks (and a no-look between-the-legs drop pass) and Trenin hit the post. Foligno, who has just 1 point in 17 games, is playing more to his identity and seems on the cusp of his first goal. Yurov, scratched for three games last week, is looking more comfortable each game.

• Hunt continued to play well, including drawing two penalties, and it doesn’t appear as though he’ll be coming out of the lineup soon. He was paired with Jiricek again as Jake Middleton missed his second straight game because of illness.

• Zeev Buium moved back to the top power play unit during this game, replacing captain Jared Spurgeon. However, Buium has yet to see reps during three-on-three overtime. It’ll be interesting to see whether that changes.