Minnesota Wild players keep it confident with season on the line vs. Vegas Golden Knights

The Wild are nothing if not resilient.

How else would they go from contending for first place in the NHL with the MVP front-runner to having their roster decimated by injury for months on end to still eking into the playoffs on a last-minute goal in their last game?

But to keep their roundabout season going, the Wild will have to overcome their cruelest twist yet.

They have to win Game 6 on Thursday night at Xcel Energy Center to stave off elimination by Vegas after a harrowing 3-2 overtime loss in Game 5 on Tuesday in which the Wild were briefly on the brink of victory.

“It’s the Minnesota Wild,” alternate captain Marcus Foligno said. “We can deal with this stuff.”

Amid the misfortune that has befallen the Wild, their latest setback stands out.

They were mere ticks away, in time and place, from having a chance to clinch their first playoff series in 10 years on home ice. But center Ryan Hartman’s go-ahead goal with 1 minute, 15 seconds left in the third period Tuesday at T-Mobile Arena was disallowed after a video challenge by the Golden Knights showed winger Gustav Nyquist was offside — his skates barely but conclusively ahead of the blue line before the puck.

“It’s tough,” Foligno said. “His angle, too, I don’t think he could really see around their defenseman. Hey, those are the bounces of the game. Every last one of us has been offside many times.

“It’s just tough that it’s a significant part of the game, but he’s a big player for us, and I know that he’ll be bouncing back.”

At 4:05 into overtime, Brett Howden pounced on an uncontested shot for a Vegas victory that was still mindboggling even if it was right on the nose for the Wild’s topsy-turvy season.

“It wasn’t on one of the three players that were down low or any of the five players on the ice,” coach John Hynes said. “It was kind of a combination of mistakes.”

The stakes have never been this steep, but the Wild have had plenty of practice at persisting.

They faltered but didn’t fold when they lost Kirill Kaprizov for half a season, the superstar winger’s lower-body injury and surgery forcing him out of an MVP race he looked destined to win and slowing the Wild after a first-half surge lifted them atop the league.

Injuries to other key players, from mid-November until April, hardwired the Wild to adapt to adversity, so much so that when they finally were healthy, they still took the gutsiest path to the postseason: They advanced because center Joel Eriksson Ek scored with 22 seconds left in the third period of their regular-season finale to give the Wild the point they needed to solidify a wild-card spot.

Another spunky stand came in Game 5.

Trailing 2-1 going into the third period, the Wild retaliated with winger Matt Boldy scoring his fifth goal of the playoffs and the defense stifling Vegas’ offense. Marc-Andre Fleury took over in net because Filip Gustavsson was too sick to continue, and the Wild eased Fleury’s transition by not allowing a shot on goal for his first 13:43 of action.

Foligno had no clue during the first two periods that Gustavsson was under the weather.

“I saw Gus lying on the table, and I saw [emergency backup goalie Jesper Wallstedt] come down, and then I saw Flower do 10 pushups,” said Foligno, who knows Fleury “does a quick chest set” before going between the pipes. “I was like, ‘This guy’s playing.’ ”

It was the sharpest the Wild have defended in the series, even without Gustavsson, who is expected to return for Game 6.

“That’s our bread and butter,” Boldy said, “and how we have to play.”

Hartman’s finish was a well-deserved reward and even stayed on the nail-biting script.

The play survived the first review to rule out a kicking motion but not the second, the offside call another what-if after the Wild led in the third period of Game 4 before falling 4-3 in overtime. That was their fifth attempt to go up 3-1 in a best-of-seven after leading 2-1, and the Wild have been unsuccessful each time.

But blowing that opportunity doesn’t have to define the Wild. Neither does going offside on a potential game-winner.

There’s still time to do what they’ve done all season long, and that’s downgrade the gut punches to gut checks.

“We’re made for it,” Foligno said. “The pesky Wild will persevere in this case, and we have a really good mindset coming into Game 6. Nothing’s been easy this year. I know our slogan’s ‘Hard,’ but it’s meant to be.

“It’s meant to be,” Foligno repeated. “I truly believe that we can get back in the series and win it, and so does everyone.”