Wild outplays Blues again but come up short in season-ending 4-3 OT loss

St. Paul – The most successful regular season in Wild history came to a deflating conclusion Saturday afternoon, finishing like a recurring nightmare where the St. Louis Blues simply suffocated Minnesota’s offense.

The post Not Good Enough appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Wild must rebound in St. Louis after another tough loss to Blues

St. Paul – The Wild have inserted themselves into a gaping hole.

“It’s up to us,” winger Chris Stewart said, “to dig ourselves out of it.”

Can they?

Wild coach Bruce Boudreau, whose Anaheim Ducks team lost two games at home to start a series against the Los Angeles Kings a year ago, noted that the Ducks rebounded in that series.

“You win one game and it’s amazing what that can do,”  Boudreau said. “We just have to go in and look at Sunday and say, ‘OK. Let’s just win one game.’ And take it from there.”

This dilemma arrived because the St. Louis Blues scored with just 2:27 remaining in regulation and grabbed their second consecutive 2-1 victory over the Wild Friday night in front of a season-high crowd of 19,404 at the Xcel Energy Center.

St. Louis leads the best-of-seven series 2-0 heading into games Sunday afternoon and Wednesday night in St. Louis.

“It’s obviously not the way you want to start,” defenseman Ryan Suter said. “We’ve got to regroup.”

Defenseman Joel Edmundson scored his second goal of the playoffs to give the Blues a 1-0 lead in the second period, but Zach Parise’s five-on-three power-play goal 14 minutes later tied the score.

As in their Game 1 overtime loss, however, Parise’s goal was all Minnesota could manage.

That’s because the Blues, who were outshot only 24-22, came on stronger in Game 2.

“I thought they played a good game,” Parise said. “It felt like they were a little quicker, they were a little better in the D-zone than the first game. I thought they played better and we didn’t play as well.”

For the second time, Jake Allen yielded just one goal for the Blues.

“We needed Jake to be great again tonight,” Blues coach Mike Yeo said.

But Allen got a ton of help.

“They clog the middle of the ice up,” Boudreau said. “They’ve got six big defensemen, and it’s hard to get through.”

“They’re defending hard,” Wild winger Jason Pominville explained. “Their goalie has been seeing the puck well, and one thing they do well is they have five guys around the paint so it makes it tough for us to get on the inside.”

Overtime seemed to be looming until roughing penalties against Minnesota’s Charlie Coyle and the Blues’ Scottie Upshall with 4:03 left in the third period set up a four-on-four situation that left Wild goaltender Devan Dubnyk shaking his head after the game.

And not just because Jaden Schwartz took advantage, scoring at 17:33 through a screen that blocked the shot from Dubnyk’s vision.

But Dubnyk especially didn’t like the four-on-four scenario at a critical point in a tie game.

“That’s unacceptable in a 1-1 hockey game, to make that call,” Dubnyk said. “It just doesn’t make sense. You can watch it a hundred times, there’s zero reason.”

Allen made a big four-on-four save at one end, and a few seconds later, Alex Pietrangelo slid the puck to Schwartz for the deciding goal.

“One heck of a shot,” Pietrangelo said.

And, 14 months to the day after a Wild tailspin cost Yeo his coaching job, Yeo recorded his second playoff victory as a visiting coach at the X. 

Yeo, as he takes his team back to St. Louis for two games on home ice, has a singular perspective about his situation and his opponent.

“We’re real happy we got both wins in here,” he said, “but I know that’s not a team that’s gonna quit. They’re not gonna go away.”

Exactly, according to Stewart.

“There’s no quit in this dressing room,” he said. “There’s a lot of heart in this dressing room. Right now we’re going to go on the road and we’ll be ready for Game 3.”

Said Dubnyk: “We just need to get the next one. That’s got to be our focus right now. We’ve been a good road team all year, so we’re just going to try to keep playing our game and I think we’ll get some momentum here.”

The post Down But Not Out appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Wild stress positives after Jake Allen steals Game 1 for Blues in OT

St. Paul – Some days, it seems, you just can’t win.

The Wild learned that a few seconds after midnight on Thursday morning at the Xcel Energy Center as players tried to figure out how they could launch 90 attempts at the St. Louis Blues’ net and score only once.

“It was a heck of a game,” Wild coach Bruce Boudreau said.

It was, as 19,168 spectators could attest — until the Blues got a goal from Joel Edmundson 17 minutes and 48 seconds into overtime to record a 2-1 victory in the first game of a best-of-seven Stanley Cup Playoff series.

Boudreaux was heartened by the statistics: Minnesota outshot St. Louis 52-26 and fired another 38 shots that were either blocked by defense or went wide.

“We had 90-some shots at their net,” he said. “We had 52 shots on the net. I thought territorially we were pretty good. We had a lot of mistake-free chances, chances that would probably be quite in our favor, so that’s what I’m taking out of it.”

The first game of the series evolved into the Jake Allen story: Allen made 51 saves and missed only a shot by Zach Parise with Minnesota’s goalie pulled and just 23 seconds remaining in the third period.

Other than that: zilch.

Parise shook his head.

“It’s disappointing we didn’t get that one,” he said. “I thought we played well, generated a lot, didn’t really give up much. It’s unfortunate when you come out on the losing side of one of those.”

Allen, Parise added in a bit of an understatement, “played good.”

And then some, if you ask Boudreau or probably anyone else in the Xcel Energy Center Wednesday evening (and into Thursday).

“It didn’t look like we were going to get much by him, the way he was playing tonight,” Boudreau said.

“I thought he was phenomenal,” Blues coach Mike Yeo said. “Really not much to say. He was outstanding. He was challenged in so many situations and certainly stepped up.”

Minnesota dominated this game in every way but the final score, winning 59 percent of the faceoffs and outhitting the Blues 35-18.

Wild goaltender Devan Dubnyk faced less of a barrage than Allen, but was equally strong through 77 minutes.

However…

“The outcome wasn’t there,” Dubnyk said, “but I think if we play like that every game, we’re probably going to get good results. The important thing I guess when a game like that doesn’t finish how you want it to is to just make sure you keep doing what you’re doing. If we stick to that we’re going to be tough to beat.”

While Minnesota’s players tipped their hats to Allen, they also came away convinced about their own abilities.

“I think we can get a lot from that,” winger Jason Zucker said. “There’s a few tweaks that we’ll make, but we’ve got to bring that same intensity and that same grit to our game and push for 60 minutes.

“For us, there’s another six games to be played. Obviously it’s disappointing; we wanted to win this game, but overall we can’t get down on ourselves and sit back with a ‘poor me’ attitude. We’ve got to regroup tomorrow, come back the next day and make sure we’re ready to go.”

The end result seemed bizarre when you factor in things like this: Charlie Coyle was one of four Wild players with at least six shots on net, and one of his best opportunities came from the slot in overtime. 

He shattered his stick and the puck slid wide.

And, when the score was 1-0 in favor of St. Louis in the third period, the Wild lost a potential goal when Parise, falling and reaching for a loose puck behind Allen, actually stopped it from going in.

“Trust me, I know what happened,” he said. “I saw the puck squirting free and I tried to jump and poke it and I think my shaft hit the post and propelled the puck out of the net. That didn’t feel very good.”

It was just one of those days.

Probably setting the table for a few to follow.

Said Boudreau: “I expect the rest of the series will be the same, tight-checking, two good goalies going at it.”

The post Disappointed, Not Discouraged appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

St. Paul – Mike Yeo took a long time before meeting the media following the Wild’s 4-2 loss to the Boston Bruins Saturday afternoon.

He probably understood that he might never again stand behind the Minnesota bench as coach of the Wild in front of a typical full house at the Xcel Energy Center.

If that was his thinking, he was correct.

The Wild, mired in a horrific stretch that included eight straight losses and 13 of its most recent 14, fired Yeo later Saturday.

“I would like to thank Mike for the hard work and dedication he provided behind the bench for the Minnesota Wild organization and wish him the best in the future,” said Wild GM Chuck Fletcher in a statement released by the team.

Earlier, Yeo made a yeoman effort to say the right things.

“I’m a realist,” he said after the game, adding that a team “can’t lose every game and expect that there’s not going to be a change.”

Whether that change affects the roster or the coaching staff, Yeo admitted that something must be changed.

“We need a response,” he said, “because that was not good enough.”

Before the news leaked out, players dodged the obvious question about their coach’s future.

“I’m not going to get into that,” Thomas Vanek said.

“It’s not up to us,” Zach Parise said. “It’s not up to the players; it’s not fair to ask any players that. It’s not our decision.”

Fans – there were 19,191 at the X on Saturday — expressed their displeasure with scattered booing during one of five unsuccessful Wild power plays as it become clear that the Wild are on the brink of falling completely out of the playoff race.

Yeo said he expected a positive response Saturday, especially on the heels of his team playing strong in in a 4-3 loss to Washington and a 4-3 overtime loss to Dallas earlier in the week.

“I’m not going to try to pretend like that was good enough,” Yeo said, adding that he was “very disappointed” with how the Wild responded.

Vanek’s goal midway through the second period tied the score 1-1, but a fluky shot by David Krejci that hit a sliding Nino Niederreiter in the chest and was carried into the net to give the Bruins a 2-1 lead just 35 seconds later.

“That seems the trend,” Vanek said. “We work so hard to finally get one and get this crowd into it, and we take the crowd out of it pretty quickly again.”

The Wild appeared close to tying the score again before Loui Eriksson’s breakaway goal made it 3-1 at the 6:58 mark of the third period.

The Wild had no response.

“We were not close to good enough,” captain Mikko Koivu said. “They were better in every aspect of the game.”

Yeo, 42, replaced Todd Richards to become the Wild’s third coach in 2011. He finished with a record of 173-132-44 but won just three of 19 games in 2016, leading to his dismissal.

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune’s Michael Russo reported Saturday night via Twitter that Iowa Wild coach John Torchetti will be named interim coach of the Wild.

After a difficult start to the season, Iowa is 10-6-1 in its last 17 games. Torchetti previously wore the interim label at the NHL level in Florida (2004) and Los Angeles (2006).

The post Wild fire Mike Yeo appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Ex-Gopher not in celebratory mood despite milestone goal

St. Paul – This was not the way Mike Reilly wanted his first NHL goal to come.

Reilly, the former Gopher and Minnesota Wild rookie defenseman from Chanhassen, was playing in his seventh NHL game Saturday afternoon and the Wild were losing 4-1 to the Boston Bruins.

Boston had just scored an empty-net goal to grab a three-goal lead, and most of the SRO crowd of 19,191 at the Xcel Energy Center had already abandoned its seats and headed for the frigid outdoors.

Then, in the final minute of play, Reilly launched a shot from the center point to make it 4-2, goal No. 1 in his NHL career.

“It sucks that it came the way it came,” Wild forward Thomas Vanek said, “because he’s a great kid. He’s going to be an unbelievable player in this league.”

Reilly, who won’t turn 22 until July, resisted the temptation to celebrate after his shot hit the Bruins’ net.

“The game was over at that point,” Reilly said. “The natural reaction is not to put my hands up.”

That was the final score as Minnesota extended its streak of futility: Three consecutive losses in a three-game homestand, eight consecutive losses total, losses in 13 of its past 14 games and the dismissal of Mike Yeo as coach.

Not a fond memory to accompany someone’s first NHL goal.

Reilly got the puck after the game but also recognizes that he might simply have to pack in his belongings for another trip to Iowa in the near future, depending on the status of injured defenseman Jared Spurgeon.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Reilly said. “When I get my number called, I’m going to go out there and play my game and try to help the team and try to produce.”

Vanek said Reilly showed class by not celebrating his goal, but he wasn’t surprised because Reilly is such a “smart player.” Reilly demonstrated that earlier on a give-and-go with Ryan Suter, Vanek pointed out.

“He’s going for a stick off the back door, which most guys don’t do,” Vanek said. “You can tell the vision. That’s hockey IQ; you don’t teach that.”

Like Vanek, Suter, Zach Parise, Mikko Koivu and everyone else on the roster, Reilly said he is mystified by the tailspin but will pitch in to make things better.

“I’m hoping,” he added, “to be part of the solution.”

The post Reilly’s first goal rings a bit hollow appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Despite losses, fans not deserting Wild

St. Paul – There were no bomb threats at the Xcel Energy Center Tuesday. Nor were any tomatoes tossed.

Wild fans are hanging in there.

Another standing-room-only crowd of 19,087 could have turned unruly after the Dallas Stars outshot Minnesota 13-9 and scored two unanswered goals to grab a 3-2 lead in the second period, but instead offered applause and even a few cheers when the home team produced a slight flurry before leaving the ice.

“Our fans were awesome,” Wild coach Mike Yeo said.

Prodded by a 12-0 difference in shots on goal at the start and the tying goal by the Wild in the third period, the fans even came together midway through the period with resounding cheers of “Let’s go, Wild!”

One goal, Mikko Koivu’s power-play tally early in the third period, was all Minnesota could manage over the 20-minute session, however, and the Stars got an overtime goal from John Klingberg to saunter out of the X with a 4-3 overtime win.

The Wild outshot the Stars 40-30 but have now lost 11 of their past 12 games.

Negatives, Yeo pointed out, are permeating the atmosphere around his team. He prefers to pick out the positives, he said.

One was the early play of the Thomas Vanek-Erik Haula-Justin Fontaine line.

Vanek, who notched two assists but whose turnover led to Klingberg’s winning goal, said one point is a whole lot better than zero, but added, “We felt like this was going to be a comeback win, but we couldn’t get it done.”

Noted Koivu: “We’ve got to play a good 60 or 65 minutes, whatever it takes, to win a hockey game in this league, and we’re not able to do that right now.”

Haula, who had a goal and an assist, noted that people keep saying how hard it is for a team to pull out of a slump, and “it really is,” he said. “It wasn’t enough again. We weren’t good enough to win the game.”

Yeo ducked no questions after the game, explaining to the media that no one has a magic cure for his team’s decline.

“It’s very easy right now to find negatives,” he added, “but nothing easy is going to get us out of this.”

Even though the Wild dominated play for much of the third period, outshooting Dallas 17-4, the strong finish served as little solace for Koivu.

“We can talk about those things over and over,” he said. “We didn’t do it and we lose the hockey game. … There’s no shortcuts. There’s not one thing we need to be doing better or whatever. We’ve got to play better to win a hockey game.”

The Wild outshot St. Louis 39-24 in a 4-1 defeat Feb. 6, so at least puck possession has improved over Minnesota’s past two games.

“I think we are playing with a little more enthusiasm, a little more jam, and that’s a good sign,” forward Zach Parise said.

Nevertheless, Parise added, things are tough in the Minnesota dressing room.

“Not a lot of people,” he said, “are feeling good offensively.”

If it’s tough in the room, it’s sometimes even tougher outside the room, where at least one bombshell exploded in the world of social media Tuesday night.

Zenon Konopka, who runs a winery and played 73 games at forward for Minnesota in 2012-14 before Buffalo acquired him on waivers, weighed in via Twitter after the nationally televised game.

“The Minnesota Wild have so much talent,” Konopka tweeted. “All the pieces to be Stanley Cup champs – wasting years isn’t fair to the players or fans.”

He concluded his tweet with: #YeohastoGo.

Some fans on social media undoubtedly agree, but the crowds continue coming to the X. Tuesday’s game was the 26th home sellout out of 26 games this season; the Wild are averaging more than 19,000 per home game.

And none of them – at least Tuesday night – was heard booing.

The post Keeping the faith appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

A positive spin on Wild’s loss heading into All-Star break

St. Paul – Following a 2-1, come-from-ahead, shootout loss to the Arizona Coyotes, this could be another in what has become a series of Minnesota Wild stories detailing the team’s struggles to put pucks in the net. But that’s not the case.

I could bore you with the fact that the Wild had been held scoreless in five consecutive periods at home before Charlie Coyle’s third-period goal on Monday night. And I won’t mention that Coyle’s goal was just Minnesota’s fourth in its past four games at Xcel Energy Center.

I could point out the obvious that the Wild have lost all five home games in calendar year 2016 (0-3-2) marking just the third winless month at the ‘X’ in franchise history (March 2001, December 2001).

Let’s also forget Minnesota has managed just 23 goals in 13 games overall (1.77 per game) in the new year.

I’m even going to leave out the continuing struggles of “top liners” Mikael Granlund and Jason Pominville who are doing Zach Parise no favors whatsoever. You certainly won’t see Minnesota coach Mike Yeo address it by saying, “It’s not like we have anybody else that’s exactly lighting it up right now. We’re talking about some major, major slumps.”

You won’t read here about how Coyle’s goal midway through the third period nearly stood up as the game winner. That was until Wild goaltender Devan Dubnyk mishandled a puck behind his own net with his team on a power play.

Arizona’s Tobias Reider capitalized on the turnover and quickly fed teammate Antoine Vermette whose shot from the right circle clipped the diving Jared Spurgeon before landing in the vacated Minnesota net with 1:13 to play in regulation. Mum’s the word on that, however.

You’ll have to look elsewhere to learn how penalties led to an entire overtime without 3-on-3 hockey and how a questionable goaltender interference call cost the Coyotes what would have been an overtime winner. But it didn’t matter as Arizona’s Anthony Duclair scored the lone shootout goal of the night giving the Coyotes an improbable 2-1 win.

Nope, tonight is going to be all about the positives.

Outside of his late-game mishap, Devan Dubnyk was very good in his All-Star game tune-up. After seeing little action through two periods, Dubnyk made 17 of his 23 saves in the final period alone, including a spectacular glove save on Arizona’s Viktor Tikhonov with 8:53 to go.

“I think we played a good game, a game that we should have won.” Dubnyk said. “That’s the way you have to look at it, I think.”

That Dubnyk had little to do through 40 minutes was a credit to a suffocating Minnesota defense which limited the Coyotes to just six shots entering the third period. Coyle’s 13th goal of the season is a career high and gives him a three-game goal streak.

“I thought we played okay,” Parise said. “I didn’t think we played a bad game, I mean, we just couldn’t get a second goal.”

Eight of Minnesota’s 10 January losses have been by one goal including one in overtime and two by shootout.

“It’s not like we’re losing by three, four goals right now,” Yeo said. “We’ve got guys who have scored before, we’re not scoring right now, and we’re creating chances but the puck’s not going in.”

Minnesota has points in 17 of its 25 home contests this season in compiling a 14-8-3 record in St. Paul. Entering the All-Star break, the Wild is in a much better position than a year ago as their 55 points is nine more than 2015 when the team was on the outside looking in as far as the playoffs were concerned.

“I’m certainly not going to point to excuses of bad luck or misfortune or whatever,” Yeo said. “It’s in our control, we’ve got a group that’s good enough to win and we’re giving ourselves a chance but we’re not grabbing it.”

The post A walk on the bright side appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Devan Dubnyk’s lack of support extends deeper into 2016

Anaheim, Calif. – The head-scratching among Minnesota Wild personnel seems contagious.

That’s because there is no easy answer to a diabolical stretch in which the Wild have scored just four goals through five consecutive losses.

Coach Mike Yeo took a long time to emerge from his dressing room Wednesday night after the latest Wild loss, a 3-1 defeat by the Anaheim Ducks at the Honda Center.

“Tough stretch,” Yeo said.

Indeed.

The Wild won on Dec. 31 to end 2015 with a 20-10-6 record, but after that both the calendar and the Wild flipped over.

They’ve won just two of 10 games in 2016, cannot buy a power-play goal and have struggled mightily in nearly every third period.

“I feel for the guys right now,” Yeo said.

The Wild changed up their power-play units and have juggled personnel here and there without success. Yeo said the effort was strong and the team’s defense played tough, but that all came crashing down when Anaheim’s Rickard Rakell tapped in a back-door pass from Patrick Maroon with just 6:19 remaining in the third period.

When players are not scoring, Yeo muttered, “some of that detail starts to slip. The second goal’s a good example of that; I thought we gave them that one.”

Minnesota, which jumps back into action against the Kings in Los Angeles Thursday night, has scored just once on its past 32 power plays and has just 16 goals in its past 10 games.

“We had some chances,” forward Charlie Coyle said. “It just comes down to that we can’t put the puck in the net.”

Zach Parise, who plays on a line with Mikael Granlund and Jason Pominville, said it’s up to him and his linemates to get the Wild out of their scoring slump, and they have not been doing that.

“Our job is to score goals,” he said. “We need to shape up a little bit.”

Asked about his team’s dearth of shots in the past four third periods, when they have accumulated just 24 shots on goal, Parise shook his head.

“That’s an interesting stat,” he said. “I didn’t know that.”

Wild players talked before the game about “keeping it simple,” and they did just that, firing the puck deep behind the Ducks’ goal early and often.

Then the Ducks simply picked up the puck and brought it back out.

Minnesota’s snake-bit offense occasionally looked more like a two-bit offense. The only Wild goal came on a wrister from the slot by fourth-line center Jarrett Stoll, Stoll’s first goal since he was picked up on waivers five weeks ago.

“We had chances tonight,” Granlund noted, “but right now that’s just not enough for a win.”

Everyone with Minnesota seems bewildered by the lack of punch on offense. The assignment for the players, Coyle noted, is to not worry about it.

“You can’t let it get in your head,” he said.

It obviously is, however.

Yeo is trying to look at the bright side. In his fifth season as Wild coach, he has endured mid-season slumps too often before but noted that those slumps seem to have toughened his guys.

“Quite often,” he said, “when we’ve come out of these things, we’ve come out of them and gone on a run.”

The way out, he went on, remains the same as it did before.

“We’ve got to play tight and we’ve got to continue to defend as well as we have been,” he explained. “We can’t lose any focus on that part of our game, but we’ve got to find a way to create some more.”

The post No offense, but Wild still not scoring appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Second straight shutout has Minnesota searching for answers

Nashville – The Wild are in a lot of pain these days for a team that went into its 45th game with the most points in franchise history.

Minnesota suffered its fourth loss in a row Saturday, a 3-0 decision to a Nashville Predators team that had lost its previous five games.

The Wild were unable to figure out Nashville’s goaltending, a bit of a surprise because regular Preds starter Pekka Rinne had the night off. Instead, Carter Hutton stood tall in the net, finally raising his save percentage above .900 this season.

The Wild had plenty of early chances and later outshot the Preds 13-5 in the second period, yet eventually extended their stretch of scoreless periods to six.

“Two games, no goals,” muttered forward Mikael Granlund. “The fact is, you can’t win the hockey game if you don’t score.”

It seemed that Wild players were at least focusing on shooting the puck, with the possible exception of Thomas Vanek and his dazzling but perhaps overused ability to pass.

Vanek had zero shots on goal compared to a combined 15 for defensemen Marco Scandella and Ryan Suter and forward Jason Pominville. Charlie Coyle, Mikko Koivu, Justin Fontaine and Matt Dumba each registered no shots on goal.

“That’s the tendency when you’re pressing,” Wild coach Mike Yeo said. “The tendency is to try to find a prettier play or a nicer play or the sure play for a goal. We’re trying to make the extra play to guarantee the goal, and in the meantime we’re missing a lot of opportunities.”

Thanks to a goal by ex-Wild forward Eric Nystrom, who deflected a point shot by Shea Weber past Devan Dubnyk just 1:24 into the first period, the Wild were trailing early in this one.

Again.

“We had a good start, too,” Yeo said. “But that’s kind of been the story: We’re chasin’ all game, every game right now.”

The only goal they yielded in a 1-0 loss to Winnipeg 24 hours earlier was scored just 3:07 into the first period.

Two early strikes against.

“Cheesy goals, too,” Suter said.

A power-play goal in the third period gave the Predators a 2-0 cushion and they added an empty-netter, which was enough against a team with five goals now in its past five games.

“It is frustrating,” Granlund said, noting that it is time for the Wild players to take a deep breath. “We just need to get better and we need to change this track quickly.”

Yeo, whose team has a 22-15-8 overall record, admitted to the same frustrations.

“We have to use this stretch, as bad as it is, to make sure that we dig in and get a little bit stronger in our game,” he said. “If we do that, then the results will follow.”

Now the Wild must attempt to regroup in upcoming back-to-back road games against Anaheim and Los Angeles.

“It’ll come,” Suter said. “We’ve got guys that have scored a lot of goals in there.”

The post Wild shoot blanks again appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Frustration mounts as scoring continues to be elusive

St. Paul – Thomas Vanek offered up this thought to try and find answers for a sputtering offense, after the Wild finished a three-game homestand with its first shutout loss of the season, 1-0 to the Winnipeg Jets (21-21-3) Friday night.

“Sometimes simple is more, especially when we have a few guys who are struggling,” Vanek said, who included himself in that category. “Just get pucks to the net.”

It’s clear the Wild (22-14-3) is a team, with its third consecutive loss, that is struggling to put pucks in the net lately. They’ve scored a total of five goals in the past four games.

“It’s frustrating we’re not scoring,” Zach Parise said. “Offensively, it’s just been not too exciting or not too much fun for us.”

It was the first time the Wild has been shutout this season, leaving Detroit as the only team in the NHL to register at least a goal in every game so far. The Wild’s last shutout came last April, also at the hands of the Jets, in a 2-0 loss in St. Paul.

Friday, former Golden Gopher Blake Wheeler scored the lone tally, just three minutes into the game. He drove the slot and beat Devan Dubnyk on the glove side. That was all that filled the score sheet.

The early deficit aside, the Wild didn’t fold right away, registering 13 shots on goal in the first 20 minutes. But that number dropped to four for the second period and seven shots in the third. They had one last chance to tie it late when Mikko Koivu was hauled down with less than three minutes to play in regulation, for a Wild power play in which it also pulled Dubynk.

It was a game where it felt like it they got one goal, they’d get another, Vanek said.

“And we weren’t able to get one,” he said.

The Wild also fell to 1-3-0 against the divisional and geographical rival Jets this season.

“It was hanging right there for us,” coach Mike Yeo said. “Just couldn’t grab ahold of it.”

For one thing, giving up the first goal of the game to the opponent is becoming a common trend, Yeo said, which puts his team in “press mode.”

The Wild is 2-4-2 so far this month and has scored just 15 goals during that time. The power play hasn’t cashed in either, with a glaring 0-for-17 stat this month. Not scoring goals with the extra man affects guys, Yeo said.

“It affects confidence, it affects pressure,” he said.

“We have to find a way to create something here. We have to make some adjustments.”

His team has been here before, he added. They’re in a decent place, and “it’s not the end of the world now,” he said. But they need to find their game, their confidence and some goals, pronto. They’re playing playoff hockey, he said.

“I like to think that what we’ve been through in the past will help us get through what’s in front of us,” Yeo said.

With that in mind, the Wild hits the road for a four-game trip, starting Saturday night in Nashville.

“It’s frustrating, but we have to put this one behind us and get ready for tomorrow,” Vanek said.

Other notes:

Jason Pominville played in his 208^th consecutive game with the Wild Friday, going back to Oct. 13, 2013. That’s good for third place for most consecutive games played in franchise history, surpassing Andrew Brunette (207).

Ryan Suter tallied six of the Wild’s 24 shots on goal, which ties his second-most in a single game this season. He was on the ice a game-high 27:46.

The post Shutout continues skid appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.