ST. PAUL, Minn — It doesn’t matter whether you root for Canada or the United States.

If you’re a Minnesota Wild fan, you had to love what you saw at the 4 Nations Face-Off.

Defenseman Brock Faber played a shutdown role for the Americans with partner Jaccob Slavin, logging the most minutes of any player in Thursday’s championship game loss.

“An emerging star,” U.S. coach Mike Sullivan said.

Matt Boldy played an engaged and creative game, albeit in a different role, and did the kind of things the Wild have wanted more of (i.e., going to the dirty areas).

Joel Eriksson Ek was arguably Sweden’s most consistent all-around player in the tournament.

Jonas Brodin showed that the lower-body injury that sidelined him for four weeks is now far behind him, getting much-needed, high-leverage game reps.

And Filip Gustavsson nearly stole a game — and a major upset — against the Canadians in a tournament-opening OT loss.

What these confidence-building moments for key players will mean for Minnesota could loom large, especially as they are in a tight race for one of the top three spots in the Central Division, or wild card. And it sounds as though all five players who participated in the best-on-best tournament will be available to play in Saturday’s matinee against the Detroit Red Wings.

How do you go from that type of emotional and Olympic-level hockey to a mid-February regular-season game?

“I think a lot of those guys are mentally tough, right?” said Wild assistant coach Jack Capuano, who has experience coaching the United States at the world championships. “They have the mindset where it’s great you can play for your country. But they know they play for the Minnesota Wild. The ultimate goal is to win the Stanley Cup, and they’ll do everything they can to do that.”

Brodin, Eriksson Ek and Gustavsson all joined the Wild for Friday’s practice, having been a couple of days off in between their tournament-ending win Monday against the United States. Brodin, who played three games before the tournament after his lengthy absence, enjoyed playing with Victor Hedman, someone he looked up to. And Brodin doesn’t think there will be an issue transitioning back to the NHL games.

“It’s just positivity, playing more hockey,” Brodin said. “I was hurt, so it was good to get in game shape and I don’t think I need any rest. I was out for four weeks. For me, it was good. The first game (against Canada) was really fast. It was probably the fastest game I ever played in. A pretty cool experience.”

Gustavsson agreed about the tournament debut against Canada, a 4-3 overtime loss. A big reason Sweden got even a point in that game was because of Gustavsson’s terrific performance.

“That first 10 minutes was so fast,” Gustavsson said. “It’s almost like we were going to lose 10-0 after the first 10 minutes. Then it was like, everyone released their shoulders a bit and started playing. It was very much fun.”

Gustavsson was among the top goalies in the NHL during the first half of the season, a co-candidate for team MVP with Kirill Kaprizov. There have been some ups and downs since midseason, perhaps some of that could be considered hard-luck. But Gustavsson felt his time at 4 Nations could only help confidence-wise.

“You almost go to different teams and you play a few players, almost show a little too much respect,” Gustavsson said. “Now you play all of them on the same team and can be head-to-head with them. (Connor) McDavid, (Nathan) MacKinnon, (Sidney) Crosby. All those guys are so good, they’re going to get their scoring chances and score some goals. But you’re right with them there and save their shots, too.”

Gustavsson was pulled after the first period of Saturday’s loss to Finland after allowing two goals on four shots. Sweden coach Sam Hallam had said it was due to illness, which apparently was spreading through a good part of the team.

“There was some sickness going around,” Gustavsson said. “It sucked. We kind of had to win against Finland. I didn’t feel well so I thought the best was to let (Linus) Ullmark play. Every player that is on the roster is so good, that if you don’t play at 100 percent, it’s better to play the other guy.”

Eriksson Ek, coming off his first 30-goal season, has just nine in the first 41 games this season. Coach John Hynes has said the Swedish two-way center has been robbed on many occasions with grade A chances, and he isn’t worried. But the fact Eriksson Ek was really good at 4 Nations, playing his fearless, physical and responsible game, should give him a boost going into the last couple of months of the season.

“He’s really good always,” Brodin said. “I don’t think he’s had a bad game — ever. But he played the same way he does here — hard to play against, hard in front of the net. Works really hard. Just fun to watch.”

Faber led all United States and Canada players in ice time (28:50) in Thursday’s showdown in Boston, with Boldy leading all U.S. forwards in ice time (22:42). Boldy had a game-winning goal and assisted on another. “It’s just his compete level, his hockey IQ, the ability to win 50-50 puck battles,” Capuano said. “He’s doing a lot of the intangibles right now to be an elite player in the National Hockey League. He’s a big part of our team and (a) big part of the USA team as well.”

It sounds like Boldy and Faber, as of now, are expected to be in the lineup Saturday in Detroit. “I would think most guys, if they’re healthy, they’re going to want to join that team and play and participate,” Capuano said.