ST. PAUL, Minn. — Enjoying the best season of his NHL career, Ryan Hartman sure has plenty of support in Minnesota.

The Wild center was fined $4,250 by the league for unsportsmanlike conduct in the game Tuesday night against Edmonton, stemming from a fight with Oilers left wing Evander Kane. After the scrap was over and the two were separated, Hartman made a profane gesture with his middle finger toward Kane as they continued to yell at each other on their way off the ice.

Anticipating the financial punishment after the game, Hartman said it would be “well worth it.”

More than he could have expected, actually, in light of an outpouring of donations from Wild fans desiring to back him up.

Hartman’s Venmo account was quickly shared on social media after the NHL announced the fine Wednesday, and the light-hearted and mostly modest contributions began to pour in. Kane’s ex-wife also chipped in, The Athletic reported.

Hartman, speaking to reporters in Dallas on Thursday before the Wild played the Stars, said he began to realize what was happening when he noticed the sheer volume of notifications connected to his Venmo account.

“I’ve been fined a few times in my career, and it’s the first time I’ve had a fan base try to help pay it off for me,” Hartman said. “As a team, we’ve stuck together and defended each other all year, and the fans are a part of that, so it was pretty cool to see the fans get behind us like that.”

Hartman announced on Twitter that the money sent to his Venmo account until Friday night would be packaged as a donation to Children’s Minnesota, the pediatric healthcare system that has a hospital a couple of blocks away from the Wild’s arena.

In his eighth NHL season, Hartman has a career-high 27 goals for the Wild through Wednesday while primarily playing on the first line between Kirill Kaprizov and Mats Zuccarello.

THURSDAY GAMES

LIGHTNING 4, DUCKS 3 (OT): Anthony Cirelli scored 1:58 into overtime and Tampa Bay beat visiting Anaheim to clinch a berth in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Ross Colton, Alex Killorn and Nikita Kucherov also scored for the Lightning. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 10 saves before being replaced by Brian Elliott, who stopped all 13 shots he faced.

Adam Henrique scored twice and Troy Terry added a goal for Anaheim. Anthony Stolarz, making his first career start against Tampa Bay, made 27 saves.

The Lightning qualified for the playoffs for the eighth time in nine seasons. The two-time defending NHL champions are trying to become the first team to win the Stanley Cup three times in a row since the Islanders won four straight from 1980-83.

MAPLE LEAFS 7, CAPITALS 3: William Nylander, Michael Bunting and Ilya Mikheyev each scored twice, Auston Matthews had two assists to reach 101 points and Toronto routed visiting Washington .

Ilya Lyubushkin also scored and captain John Tavares had four assists to help the Maple Leafs improve to 48-20-6, a victory shy of the club record set in 2017-18.

Matthews – with 58 goals and 43 assists – became the third player in Toronto history with 100 or more points. Darryl Sittler had 117 in 1977-78, and Doug Gilmour had 127 in 1992-93 and 111 in 1993-94.

PENGUINS 6, ISLANDERS 3: Jake Guentzel scored twice, Sidney Crosby also had a goal and Pittsburgh earned a playoff berth for the 16th straight season with a victory over the visiting Islanders.

BLUES 6, SABRES 2: Vladimir Tarasenko scored three times as part of a career-best five-point outing and St. Louis beat Buffalo for its seventh straight win.

Robert Thomas had five assists to extend his point streak to 11 games, during which he has six goals and 23 points.

RED WINGS 3, HURRICANES 0: Alex Nedeljkovic had 46 saves in a sharp performance against his former team, helping Detroit beat Carolina.

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