Marcus Johansson injured in Wild's Game 3 loss to Vegas.

The Wild played a forward short for most of Thursday's 5-2 loss to Vegas at Xcel Energy Center.

Marcus Johansson was injured driving the net in the first period of Game 3 of a West semifinal series at Xcel Energy Center. Wild coach Dean Evason said Friday morning that Johansson has a broken arm.

Johansson, playing on a line with Kevin Fiala and center Victor Rask, headed toward the goal from the right wing with Vegas' William Karlsson defending. Johansson cut sharply and seemed to trip on the puck as he hit the right goalpost flush on the left side of his body.

Forward lines were juggled for the rest of the game, and in several cases leading goal scorers Kirill Kaprizov and Fiala were on the same unit.

Zach Parise has been the odd man out, a healthy scratch for the first three games of the playoffs.

Vegas had a successful challenge in the first period that prevented it from falling behind 3-0.

After Wild center Joel Eriksson Ek scored what would have been his second goal of the game, Golden Knights coach Peter DeBoer challenged the play for a missed offside. Replay showed Nick Bjugstad of the Wild entered the zone a tick ahead of the puck, nullifying the goal.

Vegas then scored the next three to go ahead 3-2 after two periods.

At this point of the playoffs last year, Nico Sturm was getting added to the lineup to jolt the Wild.

Now the rookie is experiencing the postseason from the get-go — anchoring a fourth line for the Wild that is still being relied upon in crucial moments against the Golden Knights, just like Sturm and his linemates were during the regular season.

"That's what I want to prove in the playoffs, too, is that I can make a difference and be a staple in the lineup," Sturm said ahead of Game 3 at Xcel Energy Center. "I know I played a couple games before last year, too, but this year was about trying to bring what I bring on a consistent basis and it's no different now in the playoffs."

While in Vegas, Sturm was used mostly in a defensive role.

Aside from taking shifts on the penalty kill, he and linemate Nick Bonino made 11 defensive-zone starts and Sturm was on the ice for 21 defensive-zone faceoffs; only Bonino had more (23) among Wild forwards.

"Just get the puck out, try to get faceoffs and get the pucks into their zone and into our scorers' hands," Sturm said.

But Sturm does have an offensive upside, contributing 11 goals in the regular season.

He also scored last year in the playoffs in Game 4 against Vancouver — Sturm's first career NHL goal — after he made his postseason debut in Game 3.

Thursday was the Wild's first home playoff game in more than three years — since April 17, 2018.

The Wild didn't advance in 2019 and spent the postseason last year in a bubble in Edmonton.

Xcel Energy Center was at 25% capacity for Game 3, a crowd of 4,500 that was the largest the Wild has played in front of at home this season.

"You saw the first two games in Vegas now, how big the difference is with fans," Sturm said.

Vegas had to alter its travel plans to Minnesota for Games 3 and 4 after the Golden Knights received nine false positives for COVID-19.

Further testing came back negative, and an investigation revealed the initial results were erroneous. St. Louis also dealt with incorrect results.

"Obviously unbelievable concern and worry about what that means and what that's going to look like for your team going forward," DeBoer said. "We waited around. I think once we heard that there was multiple teams in the same situation, I think we started to put two and two together and realized it was probably some type of lab error and that's what it turned out to be. But it took us till later afternoon to clear it up."