Had he not been in Boston facing the Bruins, who drafted him and gave the winger his start in the NHL, Jakub Lauko probably wouldn't have finished the game.

"I was playing through pain," Lauko said of his Feb. 4 return to TD Garden after an offseason trade from Boston to the Wild for Vinni Lettieri. "Yeah, it was a special game for me, so I just needed to suck it up a little bit."

His first game back with the Wild after getting sidelined by that lower-body injury was a "different kind of struggle" — the conditioning variety — but Lauko's goal in the 3-2 loss to Detroit on Tuesday at Xcel Energy Center highlighted the opportunity he has to bolster the Wild's scoring depth while they cope with injuries to key forwards.

"We got guys that got this chance to play more, to have a better chance in the lineup," Lauko said. "So, it's on us to step up and take those minutes for ourselves."

Since the end of November, Lauko has been in and out of action because of injuries.

He was idle six games during his first absence with what he described as a muscle injury, came back for three games and then sat out a month after aggravating the same ailment. After suiting up in mid-January and rattling off nine games, he gutted out that meaningful showdown with the Bruins before getting shut down with his most recent injury, which was related to his previous issue.

Because of the 4 Nations Face-Off break, Lauko ended up missing only three games, but he hopes this is his last injury.

"I need to maybe take a longer look, dig deep a little bit after the season and see what's the problem," Lauko said. "But I feel good now."

The Wild could sure use the reinforcement.

Lauko subbed into the lineup for Joel Eriksson Ek after the center didn't feel good after practice Monday; he's week-to-week with a lower-body injury. Add in Kirill Kaprizov's ongoing recovery from surgery on his lower-body injury, and the Wild are now without their do-it-all specialist in addition to their leading scorer.

In a narrow loss like the one to the Red Wings, those players could have turned the game in the Wild's favor, but the team was in control at 2-0 in part because of Lauko.

After Marco Rossi opened the scoring, Lauko redirected in a centering attempt by Devin Shore later in the first period to continue a strong start by the Wild.

Yakov Trenin "did a great job on the boards," said Lauko, who has three goals and three assists through 34 games. "Shoresy had a lot of speed. It's just the way we talk about how we need to play, how our line needs to play, go to the net, play that north-south hockey. He made a good shooting pass to the net, and I was at the right spot at the right moment."

Goals from the fourth line were scarce earlier in the season, but the group has been making a comeback of late and that's helped the Wild stay ahead of the playoff cut line in the Western Conference despite playing mostly without Kaprizov since the holiday break.

Lauko, 24, has contributed to that uptick: His line with Shore and Marat Khusnutdinov chipped in two goals on the road trip that finished up in Boston, with Lauko picking up an assist and flashing the gritty edge the Wild acquired him for after he spent his first full season in the NHL with the Bruins in 2023-24. Before that, he played mostly with their American Hockey League affiliate after getting drafted in the third round by Boston in 2018 out of Czechia.

Now a regular with the Wild when he's healthy, Lauko's challenge is to consistently deliver his net-crashing and hard-checking style.

"At the beginning of the season, I was feeling pretty good," he said, "and to be honest the last few games before I get hurt — the Toronto and Montreal games — I felt pretty good. But, yeah, just another reason for me to just go back to try to play my best."

Wild at Utah Hockey Club

8 p.m. Thursday, Delta Center

TV; radio: FanDuel Sports Network North; 100.3-FM

This is the fourth and final meeting of the regular season between the Wild and Utah Hockey Club. After the Wild prevailed 5-4 in a shootout on the road on Dec. 10, Utah won the next two games in St. Paul. The team followed up a 2-1 victory Dec. 20 by blanking the Wild 4-0 Jan. 23.