SAINT PAUL -- Good Friday was anything but for the Minnesota Wild courtesy of a weak shot off of a broken stick which derailed Minnesota’s comeback from a two-goal deficit and eliminated them—officially—from playoff contention.

San Jose forward Logan Couture’s goal with 3:51 remaining in regulation and goaltender Evgeni Nabakov’s 27 saves were just enough for the Western-Conference-leading San Jose Sharks to defeat the Wild 3-2 at Xcel Energy Center.

Sharks defenseman Dan Boyle let go of a shot from the right point but his stick snapped in half on the attempt sending the puck trickling toward Wild goaltender Niklas Backstrom.

As players from both teams fell over one another to get to the loose puck, it squirted through to Couture who fired the puck past a sprawling Backstrom who otherwise made 25 saves in the loss.

The Wild trailed San Jose 2-0 after one period but RW Cal Clutterbuck’s 13^th and RW Antti Miettinen’s 19^th goals of the season—each career highs—in the second sent the teams to the second intermission knotted at 2-2.

The teams traded quality scoring chances in the third including Andrew Brunette’s shot off a back-door-feed from Mikko Koivu which Nabakov stole with his right pad as he slid from his left to right across the crease.

Minnesota, which played like a team completely disengaged on Wednesday in an embarrassing 4-0 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks, bounced back with a far more spirited effort against the Sharks.

Wild Head Coach Todd Richards who said his team’s effort two days ago “unacceptable” was less offended by the loss to San Jose.

“The guys left it all on the ice,” said Richards. “We played against a very, very good hockey team and I thought for 60 minutes we competed, played, and skated right with them.”

Clutterbuck echoed the sentiments of his coach.

 “None of us were happy about the way we played Wednesday,” said Clutterbuck who tied his own franchise record with 10 hits (including seven in the third period alone). “We need to come out and play the way we did today. I think we deserved the win from the drop of the puck to the final buzzer.”

Minnesota now hits the road for games in Vancouver, Edmonton, and Calgary before hosting the Dallas Stars on Saturday, April 10 to conclude the 2009-10 season in what could be the final game in Stars’ C Mike Modano’s Minnesota-born career.