MINNEAPOLIS — The Wild's second-half slump is officially in the rearview mirror.
Still basking in the afterglow of a trade deadline makeover, the Wild shrugged off the upstart Canucks 3-2 in overtime on Thursday in front of 17,333 at Xcel Energy Center for its fourth straight win.
As a result, the team reclaimed second place in the Central Division, demoting St. Louis to third.
Kirill Kaprizov scored his team-leading 33rd goal and added an assist, giving him the third-most points for a single season in Wild history at 78, and Joel Eriksson Ek's tiebreaker 31 seconds into overtime counted as the game winner.
Between the pipes, goaltender Cam Talbot turned aside 26 shots for his seventh consecutive victory, which is the longest active streak in the NHL and ties Talbot's career high.
This combination, steady goaltending with timely offense, clicked for the Wild after the team fell into an early hole.
Vancouver, led by former Wild coach Bruce Boudreau who was making his first appearance against the team since he was fired two seasons ago, was coming off a feel-good win at Colorado and despite playing the previous night, the Canucks were engaged.
That attentiveness led to a head start, with the puck bouncing off newcomer Jake Middleton's stick into the slot where Vancouver captain Bo Horvat buried the carom 4 minutes, 13 seconds into the first period.
Just seconds before then, Talbot fended off a 3-on-1 for the Canucks by kicking out his pad against Burnsville's Brock Boeser.
But the Vancouver advantage was short lived.
By 8:08, the Wild's deficit disappeared after strong work along the boards by Kaprizov culminated in a give-and-go with Ryan Hartman that Kaprizov wired top shelf over Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko for his 60th career goal in his 116th game; among active players, only the Capitals' Alex Ovechkin has scored that many goals in fewer games (95).
Kaprizov, who has at least a point in 28 of his last 33 games played, is five points behind Marian Gaborik's single-season points record (83) and nine goals shy of tying the team's goals record (42).
Hartman's assist pushed his point streak to four games, and Mats Zuccarello's helper (44) is one behind Kaprizov for the most on the team. Of Kaprizov's 60 goals, Zuccarello has assisted on 27 of them (45 percent).
Then, just 1:44 into the second period, Kevin Fiala pounced on a rebound off an offensive-zone faceoff for his 21st goal and 12th point in his last 11 games.
That Wild lead actually briefly ballooned just past the midway point of the period as Jon Merrill capitalized on a shot during a delayed Vancouver penalty.
But Boudreau challenged to see if the play was off-side, and the video review showed Fiala preceded the puck into the zone to negate the goal.
The Wild was awarded the power play after not scoring on the delayed penalty but blanked on the opportunity, going 0-for-2.
As for the Canucks, they went 1-for-3 after J.T. Miller's shot sailed through traffic 7:56 into the third to extend the action before Eriksson Ek's breakaway sealed his second career overtime goal. Demko totaled 33 saves.
Since a 4-9 funk that saw the team give up four or more goals on nine occasions, the Wild is 6-1-1 and has allowed more than two goals just three times in that span.
This improvement overlapped with the team's recent shakeup that added goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, forwards Nic Deslauriers and Tyson Jost and Middleton via trades.
