Brent Burns took matters into his own hands Sunday night to give the San Jose Sharks their biggest win of the young season.

Burns scored a dazzling goal with 1:48 left in the third period to help give the Sharks a thrilling 5-3 win over the Minnesota Wild at Xcel Energy Center.

After a faceoff win by Tomas Hertl, Burns took control of the puck, stick-handled toward the Minnesota net and roofed a shot past Wild goalie Kaapo Kahkonen for his second goal of the season.

The Sharks had given back a two-goal lead they had midway though the second period. But Burns’ nifty individual effort helped the Sharks split the two-game series with the Wild and even their record this season at 3-3-0.

“Guys like that, elite players, they find ways to make huge differences in the game and that’s exactly what it was,” Sharks coach Bob Boughner said. “We needed that.”

Sharks winger Ryan Donato had a goal and as assist against his former team and goalie Martin Jones had 26 saves for his second consecutive win. Matt Nieto added an empty net goal with 28.7 seconds to go as the Sharks can head into their two-game series with the Colorado Avalanche this week with a little bit of momentum.

“I thought that that was probably our best game that we’ve played so far and most complete,” Burns said. “Competed hard. That would have been a tough one to lose. You lose that first game, you have to win the second game. So that was nice to get that and feel good about it.

“I think the game was coming. We were competing hard and that’s one you would hate to see to not come through with two points.”

Evander Kane and Noah Gregor both scored in the second period for the Sharks, with Kane’s power play goal at the 6:39 mark of the second period breaking an 0-for-12 skid San Jose had  been on with the man advantage.

Gregor’s goal, his first of the season, came with 11:34 left in the second period.

Zach Parise, Nick Bjugstad and Kevin Fiala scored for the Wild (4-2-0), which had been off to its best start after five games since going 4-0-1 in 2008-09.

After their series in Denver, the Sharks then fly to Phoenix to play two games as the home team against the Vegas Golden Knights on Feb. 1 and 3. Saturday, the Sharks announced they would have relocate those games from SAP Center to Gila River Arena in Glendale because of Santa Clara County’s ongoing contact sports ban.

Donato, who played 84 games for the Wild from 2018-2020 before he was traded to the Sharks, in October, scored at the 19:02 mark of the first period to tie the game 1-1. His assist on Kane’s goal

Jones came into Sunday with a 2-1-0 record and an .893 save percentage. On Wednesday, Jones stopped 22 of 23 shots in a 2-1 Sharks shootout win over the St. Louis Blues.

In his last five starts against the Wild over the last two seasons, Jones had a 5-0-0 record, a .943 save percentage and a 1.60 goals against average.

The two teams were tied 1-1 after the first period as Donato scored his second of the season at the 19:02 mark of the first period.

Erik Karlsson faked a shot toward the goal and found Kevin Labanc with a sharp pass in to Labanc the corner to the left of Kahkonen. Labanc then fed Donato with a short backhand pass, and Donato put a shot on goal that deflected off Jared Spurgeon’s leg and between the pads of Kahkonen.

The Wild were outshot 12-3 by the Sharks in the first period, but their first shot found its way past Jones at the 4:21 mark as Parise scored in his second straight game.