Matt Dumba said he missed 12 games late in the regular season with a dislocated rib, a broken rib and a punctured lung. The defenseman returned to play in the best-of-7 Western Conference First Round against the St. Louis Blues, which the Wild lost in six games.
"Yeah I was going to play no matter what," Dumba said Monday. "I really wanted to push to have one [regular-season] game in before [playoffs]. We wanted to give it a test run. Yeah, I felt good enough to play."
Dumba sustained the injuries in a 6-2 loss at the Nashville Predators on April 5. He returned for Minnesota's final regular-season game, a 4-1 win against the Colorado Avalanche on April 29.
Dumba had one goal in Game 6 and was plus-4 with 15 shots in the playoffs. He will not need surgery.
"Thanks to our (medical) staff working with me every day, or I wouldn't have been able to come back at the rate that I did and even play," he said. "Those guys pushed me knowing I wanted to get back and help this team in whatever capacity because it's just so much fun to be a part of."
Joel Eriksson Ek took a stick to the mouth from Wild defenseman Dmitry Kulikov in the first period of Game 6 and wore a cage the rest of the game. The forward sustained four broken teeth that were later pulled.
"Yeah, it's been hard eating, but it's getting better," Eriksson Ek said. "The first two or three days was really sore, but now it feels a little bit better."
Eriksson Ek had five points (three goals, two assists) in the playoffs. -- Jessi Pierce