Kirill Kaprizov simply wasn’t going to let the Wild lose. Not on this particular night. Not with the hopes and dreams of this season still hanging in the balance.

With Minnesota in danger of falling 10 points out of the final playoff spot with 20 games remaining, Kaprizov netted a hat trick to lead a 4-3 Wild win over the lowly San Jose Sharks. He singlehandedly erased a deficit in the final frame Sunday at the Xcel Energy Center, then scored the game-winner for good measure.

“You always need the guys that play the most minutes ... to be able to step up and drive things,” head coach John Hynes said. “I thought Kirill and a few other guys did a really good job tonight.”

Asked about his performance postgame, Kaprizov bashfully deferred credit to his teammates, replying, “Some good passes from guys.”

The win helped the Wild (29-27-6, 64 points) stay within striking distance of the Los Angeles Kings (31-19-10, 72 points) and Nashville Predators (35-25-2, 72 points) for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference, giving general manager Bill Guerin something to think about with the trade deadline coming up this week

After dominating play for much of the first period, the Wild had nothing to show for it.

That wasn’t ideal, and it started to go sideways for the Wild early in the second period as Sharks winger Mikael Granlund went top shelf on the power play to make it 1-0. It got worse from there for the Wild as winger Matt Boldy turned the puck over while on the power play and watched Sharks winger Nico Sturm score shorthanded to stretch the lead to 2-0.

That seemed to awaken the Wild.

On the very next shift, with the Wild still on the power play, Freddy Gaudreau quickly cut the deficit to 2-1. That energized the home crowd, and less than 90 seconds later, Kaprizov handled a stretch pass from fellow winger Mason Shaw and casually made it 2-2.

Though the Wild pushed hard to create some separation in the aftermath, they couldn’t find the back of the net. That came back to bite them in the third period as Sharks winger Anthony Duclair got loose on a partial breakaway and beat goaltender Filip Gustavsson glove-side to make it 3-2.

Luckily for the Wild, they have Kaprizov, and he took over down the stretch.

It started when he carved out some open ice near the slot, then unleashed a perfectly placed slap shot on bended knee to level the score at 3-3.

“It’s amazing,” Gustavsson said. “All those players that are at his level in this league, you just wish you had that talent yourself. I hope everyone can enjoy watching those players. That’s what I’m doing.”

Kaprizov made it 4-3 a few minutes later, completing his hat trick and lifting the Wild to a win in the process.

“What makes him one of the best in the world is that he competes every single day,” Gaudreau said. “I feel very lucky I am able to play on a team with a guy like that. Yeah. He’s special.”

Briefly

The lineup felt disjointed throughout the game as the Wild were without winger Marcus Johansson, who sat out due to a lower-body injury, and winger Mats Zuccarello, who was a late scratch due to personal reasons. Defenseman Dakota Mermis suited up in place of Zuccarello, but he logged very limited ice time.