On New Year’s Eve, you want to say goodbye to the past on a high note, and leave the troubles of the previous year behind. The Minnesota Wild accomplished exactly half of that in closing out 2024 with a victory.

Marco Rossi had a pair of goals as Minnesota came from behind to beat the struggling Nashville Predators 5-3 on Tuesday evening before a festive home crowd. But a second-period injury suffered by Wild captain Jared Spurgeon cast a pall over the revelry, and may mean more challenges in 2025 for a team that has dealt with key player absences repeatedly this season.

It was the third win in the past four games for the Wild, who got a trio of power-play goals and a season-high 43 saves from goalie Filip Gustavsson.

“I think last game we hit two or three posts; this time they went in. So I think that helps,” said Mats Zuccarello of the man-advantage success, finally. “You always go through stretches during the year where you’re not really, like you’re playing but you can‘t get it in. Maybe start thinking about it too much and then gripping the stick a little bit and not making the plays that you normally make. So it’s always nice to see it go in and get a good feeling, and get back a little bit of swag.”

Still, with mainstay defenseman Jake Middleton already missing the past nine games due to an upper body ailment, the potential loss of Spurgeon has to weigh heavily on the minds of Wild brass as fireworks went off at midnight.Spurgeon was tripped from behind into the end boards by Nashville winger Zachary L’Heureux and collided skate-first with the wall, then landed awkwardly on the ice.

As Spurgeon was helped off the ice and directly to the locker room, favoring his right leg, officials reviewed the play, giving L’Heureux a major penalty for the slew foot and ejecting him from the game.

“When you have a player on their team do what he did, that gave us life,” Wild coach John Hynes said. “Obviously, it was a cheap hit, and it allowed us to get on the power play. And that probably was the difference in the game was that undisciplined play on his part, and our team took advantage.”

It took the Wild less than eight minutes to put double-digit shots on goal, and the 10th time was a charm, as Mats Zuccarello’s puck to the net hit Rossi, then trickled between the Nashville goalie’s knees for an early lead. Zuccarello, who missed a month after a serious injury suffered in front of the net in November, joked that he leaves the net-front to Rossi now.

“Yeah I don’t go there anymore, so that’s your job now,” Zuccarello joked.

The Wild lead didn’t last long, as Rossi’s goal seemed to light a fire in the underachieving Predators. Their rally began when former Gophers defenseman Brady Skjei leaned into a blast from the blue line that was tipped past Gustavsson by Colton Sissons, who was posted in front of the net.

After killing off the game’s first penalty, the Predators got a gift when Yakov Trenin’s off-target pass in the defensive zone was intercepted by Steven Stamkos, who fed Jonathan Marchessault for a tap-in. It was the team-leading 14th goal of the season for Marchessault.

With L’Heureux gone, the Wild tied the game on the ensuing extended power play when Gustavsson fired the puck up ice to Joel Eriksson Ek at the far blue line. Eriksson Ek passed to Zuccarello for a tap-in. Gustavsson’s assist on the play was his second point of the season, after he scored an empty net goal during an October Wild win in St. Louis. Brodin gave Minnesota its second lead of the game a few minutes later with a seeing-eye shot through a crowd in front of the Nashville net.

But the Predators again tied the game when Ryan O’Reilly popped in a loose puck after Gustavsson had made the initial save on a Gustav Nyquist shot. Declan Chisholm’s power play blast late in the second was the eventual game-winner, giving the defenseman a career-best three-game point streak.

Juuse Saros had 33 saves for the Predators, who have now lost three in a row and are 0-2 versus the Wild this season. Their coach, who is a former Wild teammate of Spurgeon’s, said he hopes for the best for the Minnesota captain.

“Obviously, I hope Spurge is OK. I played with Spurge and a pretty good friend of mine,” Predators coach Andrew Brunette said. “Really hard to get a great read on it. I know Zach’s a hard player, he went in hard. It’s unfortunate it looked that way, I don’t think that was the intent, but you never like to see a guy like Spurge go down.”

The Wild open 2025 on the road, visiting the Washington Capitals on Thursday and the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday. Their first home game of the New Year is Tuesday, Jan. 7 versus St. Louis.