Already down a forward against Montreal when Ryan Hartman was scratched with an upper-body injury, the Wild decided to up the ante on their degree of difficulty Thursday at Xcel Energy Center.

With Hartman newly unavailable after scoring two big goals as the Wild split tough road games Monday and Tuesday, head coach John Hynes opted to play 11 forwards and seven defensemen against the Canadiens.

Then Minnesota lost another forward for 17 minutes when Marco Rossi started a fight with Kaiden Guhle midway through the second period.

But the Wild are proving difficult to sink.

Rossi finished with a goal and two assists for his first career three-point game, and Kirill Kaprizov potted his second overtime winner in as many games with 4.9 seconds left as the Wild beat Montreal 4-3.

Filip Gustavsson stopped 22 shots, and Kaprizov added two assists as the Wild won for the fourth time in five games and improved to 9-3-0 since Hynes became the team’s head coach on Nov. 27.

Considering Minnesota has been without top defensemen Jonas Brodin since Dec. 10 and Jared Spurgeon since Dec, 14, the Wild had their work cut out for them when the puck dropped, but they weathered their personnel issues, as well as a series of untimely penalties.

That included a 4-minute roughing minor by Zach Bogosian that resulted in the tying goal by Nick Suzuki early in the third period.

Rossi was penalized three times for starting a fight with Kaiden Guhl — who had just flattened Kaprizov — 9:23 into the second. A handful of teammates skated to the box to congratulate him on sticking up for a teammate, but Rossi soon skated off the ice, lost for 17 minutes with a five-minute major, 10-minute game misconduct and instigating minor.

He didn’t return until midway through the third period but had the second assist on Faber’s game-tying goal, a wrist shot from the point that slipped between teammate Joel Eriksson Ek and defenseman David Savard to beat a screened Sam Montembeault at 8:57 to make it 3-2.

About 4 minutes later, Savard had the first assist on Juraj Slafkovsky’s game-tying goal with 3:03 remaining. The Wild made a late push when Cole Caufield was called for cross-checking with 1:27 remaining but couldn’t win it in regulation — or cash in on their 27-second man advantage in the three-on-three overtime.

Thinner after double-shifting several forwards before that, the Wild were handed a giant task when Bogosian followed Rossi’s exit with a hard check on Brendan Gallagher behind the Wild net. The defenseman was given a double minor, and while the Wild survived the second period with a 2-1 lead, the Canadiens still had 1:19 of power play left.

Montreal tied the game, 2-2, when Nick Suzuki poked the puck out of Gustavsson’s grasp and tapped it into an empty corner at 18:42.

Boldy gave the Wild a 1-0 lead at 13:19 of the first period when he one-timed a pass from Kaprizov past Montembeault, and Rossi extended it to 2-0 just more than a minute later. After Marcus Foligno corralled a loose puck in the neutral zone, Rossi scored on a wrist shot from the left circle, beating Montembeault far corner.

At that point, the Wild, thoroughly outplaying Montreal, appeared to be on their way to an easy victory.