SAN JOSE, Calif. – Kirill Kaprizov is down a tooth but up in the NHL scoring race.

The Wild star returned to form on Thursday night — albeit with a new look after taking a puck to the face last game — by architecting the turning point in a 5-2 win over the Sharks at SAP Center after not factoring into the offense during his previous two games.

The score was 1-1 when Kaprizov capped off a juggernaut shift by spinning for a no-look pass that sailed behind the San Jose defense and right to the stick of Mats Zuccarello for a one-timer at 8 minutes, 1 second of the second period for the start of Kaprizov’s three-point effort.

Earlier in the second, the Sharks successfully challenged for off-side to overturn a Joel Eriksson Ek goal that would have put the Wild ahead 2-0 after a Zach Bogosian point shot deflected in off San Jose’s Will Smith only 2:22 into the first period.

Then, after the challenge, the Sharks doubled down when Macklin Celebrini scored at 4:36 off the rush; this was the reigning Hobey Baker Award winner and first overall draft pick’s third game after Celebrini was sidelined with a hip injury.

The equalizer was well-earned and not surprising.

San Jose had been upping the pressure since late in the first period, and the Wild needed to re-establish control before the Sharks surpassed them.

Cue Kaprizov, and his eyes-in-the-back-of-his-head chemistry with Zuccarello to spark the Wild, who improved to 9-2-2.

Only a few minutes later, the Wild capitalized again, this time when Ryan Hartman tipped in a Frederick Gaudreau shot.

But San Jose challenged for off-side and was correct, once again preventing the Wild from gaining a two-goal cushion.

Eventually, though, they made that buffer stick courtesy the beleaguered power play on its third try of the night.

The Wild ended a 0-for-16 drought when Matt Boldy flung the puck by Sharks goalie Vitek Vanecek (26 saves) from the right faceoff circle, with Kaprizov assisting on the play.

The penalty kill was also better, going 3-for-3 after surrendering six goals over the past five games.

Goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury was key on a PK late in the second, making a pad save against Alexander Wennberg to prevent the Sharks from getting any closer.

Fleury had 24 stops overall in his 1,029th career game, which tied him with Patrick Roy for third in NHL history among goaltenders.

In front of the Wild net, Kaprizov remained dynamic the rest of the way, trying a between-the-legs shot in the third before snagging another assist on a Jonas Brodin point shot at 6:02; Gaudreau’s helper on the goal extended his assist and point streaks to a career-high five games.

At 16:08, Celebrini notched his second goal and third overall to continue his own showcase, but Boldy put an exclamation point on the Wild’s victory by burying his team-leading eighth goal into an empty net with 1:35 to go.

Kaprizov’s 24 points are second in the NHL (only Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon has more with 25), and his 17 even-strength points are tops.

The winger became only the fourth active player with a multipoint streak on the road of at least seven games, tying Edmonton’s Connor McDavid for the third longest behind Nashville’s Steven Stamkos and Nashville’s Roman Josi (eight games apiece).

While Kaprizov performed like he did before he went pointless vs. Toronto and Los Angeles, he didn’t look the same.

Aside from getting a bottom tooth knocked out, Kaprizov was also wearing a smattering of stitches above his lip where the puck caught him Tuesday in the 5-1 loss to the Kings.

Kaprizov was absent during that game when Los Angeles started its comeback against a sputtering Wild, but his fingerprints were all over the Wild’s most vital stretch against San Jose.

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