Wild blow 3-1 lead to Flyers as losing ways continue

ST. PAUL - All points are crucial right now for the Wild so getting one point is nice but it isn't nice considering how they got that point. It's one thing to be down 3-1 in the third period with nine minutes left and score two goals to force overtime but lose in the extra frame. 

Well, that's the complete opposite of what the Wild did. They had a 3-1 lead in the third period with just about nine minutes left but eventually blew the game to the Philadelphia Flyers. 

“It was a great start to the third to get that lead. Something we haven’t had in a while," Wild goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury said. "Philly pushed, too, right? On the second one that was a quick transition by them coming back and passing across. And the other one they were in the zone buzzing a bit and went across and couldn’t see the release and it’s a tie game. But I liked the way nobody panicked after, right? I thought we stuck with it and I played a good rest of the third. Tough loss, though.”

Since Filip Gustavsson went down with an injury in Winnipeg on December 30th, we all knew Fleury would now get a prime chance to pass Patrick Roy. Yet six games later the Wild blow a 3-1 lead with nine minutes left in the third period on home ice to the Flyers to keep history waiting. 

“Well, it’s the discipline and details there, like I said. I thought you have a 3-1 lead with 9 minutes left in the game and you’re in a neutral zone forecheck and you don’t execute," Wild head coach John Hynes said. "Those are the details that you need to have in that situation. For example, your F3 needs to get over to the middle. If the F3’s not there, then the D can’t step outside the dots.

“It wasn’t a change in style of play; it’s the discipline and details at key moments in the game — particularly when you have a lead. You have to do your job in those situations. That’s the difference in the game.”

On the Flyers' second goal of the game which sparked a third-period comeback, Mats Zuccarello pressured Sean Walker along the boards with Matt Boldy behind. Walker chipped the puck ahead for Scott Laughton who blew past Alex Goligoski and later had a 2-on-1 with Tyson Foerster. 

Foerster eventually snapped his 16-game goal drought after a costly neutral zone breakdown by the Wild. 

Owen Tippett scored just over a minute later to tie the game for the Flyers on his 15th goal of the season. 

The Wild entered overtime in a game they allowed the Flyers to get back into but still took a penalty after Zuccarello went to the box for tripping. The Flyers pressured the Wild in the offensive zone but weren't able to get anything past Marc-Andre Fleury. 

"The guys battled, battled good in front," Fleury said on the penalty kill in overtime. "Fabes made a huge save … Just shot at the end. It’s coming high, guy tips it low, right? It’s right in front of me. Just frustrating, right, because we’re right there, right there. We need points. Tough to lose there.”

After Faber's blocked shot Joel Eriksson Ek eventually got a shorthanded breakaway the other way but with Jamie Drysdale catching up to him, Eriksson Ek couldn't get a shot off and eventually fell down after Drysdale got his stick around Eriksson Ek. 

The poke of the puck by Drysdale's stick was a very good play but while the young defenseman from Ontario got his stick on the puck, he grabbed the back of Eriksson Ek's jersey along his breezers which made Ek fall down. 

"I think it's kind of obvious," Eriksson Ek said on if he thought it should have been called a penalty. "Yeah."

Hynes added: “Clear cut penalty. Clear cut penalty. Reaches over, grabs his jersey, and holds him. It’s disappointing that the call wasn’t made at that time.”

The toughest part about it all was the Flyers then went all the way down and scored 14 seconds after Eriksson Ek was hauled down. 

Pat Maroon was so furious by the noncall that he slammed his stick over the bench after Joel Farabee scored the overtime winner and jumped over the boards to skate directly at Brandon Blandina, who didn't make the call on the Eriksson Ek breakaway, and started screaming at him. 

The fact of the matter is, the Wild should've never let it even get to this moment if they just would've held onto their two-goal lead with nine minutes left in the third period to walk away with a win over the Flyers. 

Instead they now drop to 17-19-5 on a night in which one of their central division rivals, the Nashville Predators, beat the Dallas Stars. A win today and a win tomorrow against the Arizona Coyotes would have had the Wild tied with the Coyotes in the standings with 42 points and only three points out of a playoff spot, if the Oilers lose. 

Instead, the Wild dropped a game they should've won. A win that could've put them within reach of a playoff spot but also a win that would've had Fleury ahead of Roy in wins, something they haven't been able to accomplish for a while now. 

"It sucks. Two-goal lead in the third. Losing that one, obviously coming off a bunch of losses already, it's frustrating," Faber said. "But it's a quick turnaround. So all we can do right now is look at tomorrow and focus on getting a win tomorrow and going from there. But it sucks. But we’ll make our adjustments. We need to. We need to find our game and it starts tomorrow."