Jared Spurgeon’s birthday blast spurs Wild’s matinee win

Turning 35 is not a real milestone birthday, like when a person hits 18, 21, or 40. Still, Wild captain Jared Spurgeon made the start of his 36th trip around the sun a day to remember on Friday.

With the Wild trailing Chicago in the second period, Spurgeon turned in the eighth multi-goal game of his career as Minnesota rallied for a 3-2 win and an important pair of points in the Central Division standings.

As recently as a month ago, there were fears that Spurgeon — who missed much of last season with injuries and sat out a half dozen games in October — was on the tail end of a remarkable career. But he is able to concentrate on his game, and not worry about the potential for further injury.

“When the team’s playing well, it makes it easier, but there’s still little things that you are, within the game, that you’re still trying to get back to,” he said. “Missing a year’s a lot, but every game seems to ...