Takeaways: Macklin Celebrini sets up both goals as San Jose tops Wild 2-1 in OT

The San Jose Sharks haven’t slowed down since they defeated the Wild last month.

They’ve gotten better.

After a third-period tying goal, San Jose completed its comeback 2-1 in overtime Tuesday night at Grand Casino Arena to also win the rematch.

“It’s a tough loss,” Wild alternate captain Marcus Foligno said. “We dominated them for most of the game.”

Collin Graf scored 2 minutes, 41 seconds into 3-on-3 action after Will Smith’s finish on the power play tied the score with 8:03 left in regulation.

Macklin Celebrini, who’s second in NHL scoring, set up both goals after not registering a shot against Filip Gustavsson, the goalie making 16 saves in his return to the crease after a two-game break backing up rookie Jesper Wallstedt.

Celebrini is in his second season after winning the Hobey Baker Award as a freshman at Boston University. He had two assists and an overtime goal to down the Wild 6-5 on Oct. 26 in St. Paul.

“It was a good game by us,” Foligno said. “Unfortunately, we couldn’t get enough goals. We were snakebit, some of us, myself included. We’ve gotta find ways to get it in, but the majority of the game we liked our game.”

Compared with their last meeting when the Sharks earned three two-goal leads, the Wild were much better on defense.

San Jose isn’t a heavy shot volume team to begin with, but the Wild were making it tough for the Sharks to get pucks through to Gustavsson for the first two periods and that was their game plan — to take away what coach John Hynes called “easy ice.”

Instead, the Wild spent more time on offense and were in control for most of the night because their possession was consistent. That’s no small feat against San Jose, which has won four in a row and is on a seven-game point streak.

The Wild finally cashed in on that pressure 5:02 into the second period on their second of four power plays when a patient Mats Zuccarello threw a pass across the zone to Boldy for a slam-dunk one-timer past netminder Yaroslav Askarov, who totaled 28 saves.

“You want to be able to control what you can control, which is your zone time, your opportunities, the territory battle,” Hynes said. “That was pretty good tonight, but it wasn’t good enough to win.”

In the third, the Wild stayed locked in, but the Sharks were speedy and skilled on their third power play, dissecting the Wild’s posture with a tic-tac-toe play that Smith buried off a Celebrini feed at 11:57.

The goal snapped a 14-for-14 run by the Wild’s penalty kill and paved the way for San Jose to rally in overtime when Celebrini’s pass through Jonas Brodin’s legs landed on Graf’s stick for a backhander by Gustavsson.

Earlier in the shift, Celebrini took down Zuccarello along the boards and Brodin was tripped up behind the Sharks net. Neither resulted in a penalty.

“We would like that PK goal back,” Foligno said. “We were just a little loose at the line, and obviously there could have been a call in overtime.”

This defensive awakening by the Wild is coming at a good time.

Their long homestand feels like somewhat of a do-over from the meh six-game set the Wild finished up last week. But to take advantage, they had to clean up their own zone against the caliber of offenses coming through. So far, they’re accomplishing that with both goalies contributing.

BOXSCORE: San Jose 2, Wild 1 (OT)

NHL standings

Wallstedt shut out the Calgary Flames 2-0 on Sunday night, and Gustavsson was sharp despite a smaller workload.

“We played a good game,” Gustavsson said. “We limited their offensive guys to very limited chances. They’ve been a high-scoring team all year. Giving up one there in the first 60 minutes is good by us.”