Fleury's 36 saves help Wild defeat Sharks

SAN JOSE -- Marc-Andre Fleury made 36 saves to help the Minnesota Wild defeat the San Jose Sharks 3-1 at SAP Center on Saturday.

"I think they've got a good young group," Fleury said. "We had less shots, [but] I think that shows that our boys were playing good. Boxing out and helping me see the puck."

Marco Rossi and Matt Boldy scored for the Wild (27-12-4), who have won five of the past six. Mats Zuccarello had a goal and two assists.

"I think 'Flower' played really well," Wild coach John Hynes said. "It was nice to see him come back after his sickness, and he rose to the occasion tonight."

William Eklund scored for the Sharks (13-26-6), who have lost three in a row and 11 of the past 13. Yaroslav Askarov made 19 saves.

"I thought we competed hard, worked hard, [and] did some really good things," Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said. [We] did some good things and some things we got to get better at."

Rossi gave the Wild a 1-0 lead at 5:51 of the first period. Zuccarello floated a pass to Rossi, who got behind the defense and went backhand with a shot over Askarov's blocker.

"I saw [Rossi] have some speed and he made a good finish and got us on the board," Zuccarello said.

Boldy extended the Wild lead to 2-0 at 4:34 of the second period after he took a pass from Zuccarello, walked in on the right side, and scored with a snap-shot over the glove of Askarov from the top of the right circle.

Eklund cut the lead to 2-1 at 17:30 after Macklin Celebrini's shot from the bottom of the right circle created a rebound in front, which Eklund backhanded past Fleury.

"I think it was a lot of chances we could have scored today," Eklund said. "I think we had a lot of grade-A chances. We got to find a way to score more goals here. We haven't done that lately."

Zuccarello added an empty-net goal at 18:43 of the third period for the 3-1 final. Celebrini turned the puck over at the blue line, and Zuccarello scored after Askarov started going to the bench.

NOTES: Rossi factored on the first goal of the game for the 11th time this season, which is tied for the second most behind only Leon Draisaitl (14). ... Defensemen Brock Faber, Jonas Brodin and Jared Spurgeon and Kirill Kaprizov, a forward, each did not travel for the Wild. ... Jake Walman returned to the Sharks lineup and recorded an assist after missing the previous eight games due to a lower-body injury. ... Nikolai Kovalenko and Klim Kostin were placed on injured reserve prior to the game.