The joy of Kirill Kaprizov’s hat trick on Sunday night at the Xcel Energy Center was fleeting. Though the home crowd in St. Paul was ecstatic as Kaprizov helped the Wild sneak away with a 4-3 win over the San Jose Sharks, there was a businesslike tone from players in the locker room afterward.

Not much to celebrate with the Wild suddenly facing an uphill climb to make the NHL playoffs.

“I hope we can win more games now,” Kaprizov said. “We will see what happens.”

It’s hard to believe how much the Wild have fallen off since entering last week within four points of the final playoff spot in the Western Conference. They can blame their three-game losing streak at the worst possible time. Needing to string some wins together, the Wild instead suffered losses to the Carolina Hurricanes, Nashville Predators and St. Louis Blues in succession.

As a result, the Wild (29-27-6, 64 points) enter this week trailing both the Predators (35-25-2, 72 points) and Los Angeles Kings 31-19-10, 72 points) by eight points for the final playoff spot in the West. It could have been even worse for the Wild if they didn’t mount a comeback to beat the Sharks on Sunday.

“We just had to bounce back,” goaltender Filip Gustavsson said after Sunday’s game. “We can’t give up. We got two points today. We just need to keep fighting to get more points and see where it takes us.”

This will be a pivotal stretch for the Wild coming up this week with a winnable game against the Arizona Coyotes followed by a tough game against the Colorado Avalanche. Though the Wild understand the task at hand, they are trying not to put too much pressure on themselves, while also fighting the urge to scoreboard watch after every single game.

“It’s a matter of keeping the right mindset,” winger Freddy Gaudreau said. “Not focusing on who’s ahead of us and who’s behind us, and trying to get back in the race. It’s about us and how we approach each game. I think that’s the mindset that we try to keep moving forward.”

That’s all the Wild can do at this point. Everything else will take care of itself.

“We’re focused on us and what we have to do to win hockey games,” rookie defenseman Brock Faber said. “We’re not out of this thing. I know it feels like it. We have confidence that we’re a team that can do it.”

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