Wild fall 3-1 to the Flames at home for third loss in a row

ST. PAUL — Give the Minnesota Wild credit.

They’ve dealt with a lot of adversity so far this season with an abnormal number of injuries, especially to many of their most important players. Yet under coach John Hynes, the Wild have continued to play well and have given themselves a chance to win almost every game despite the growing injury list.

“We have a system in place and structure in place,” Jake Middleton said Tuesday postgame of the injuries, “that is made to be able to plug guys in the lineup.”

Since Jared Spurgeon and Ryan Hartman returned to the lineup this past Wednesday and Saturday, respectively, four players have joined previously injured Jonas Brodin and Mats Zuccarello on the injury list. 

All three of Kirill Kaprizov, Vinni Lettieri and Filip Gustavsson suffered injuries against the Jets in Winnipeg on Saturday.

That’s not it.

Marcus Foligno was unavailable to play Tuesday night when the Wild hosted the Calgary Flames, and Hynes said “I’m not sure yet” postgame as to whether the 32-year-old’s injury is serious.

Yet once again, just like in Sunday’s loss at home to the Jets, the Wild never took themselves out of the game in their 3-1 loss to the Flames — who have won four of their past six contests — inside Xcel Energy Center on Tuesday.

“We were right there in both games,” Hynes said. “So we (have) got to continue to build off that. We believe in the group. We have capable guys, and we have a strong foundation. 

“We know how we want to play. We just got to continue to get to it.”

Right there on Tuesday night except for the first period that dug them a hole.

The Wild faced a 2-0 first-period deficit after both Andrew Mangiapane and Jonathan Huberdeau beat Marc-Andre Fleury — the latter scored with just 24 seconds left. The Flames outshot the Wild 11-4 and had 60 percent of the expected goal share in the first at five-on-five, according to Natural Stat Trick.

“It set the tone for them I think, right?” Middleton said of the two-goal, first-period deficit. “We did not do anything we really wanted to.

“That’s probably the least competitive we’ve been in awhile here, and it’s a shame because we did play really well in the last two periods and generated a lot of chances, but to do that to ourselves in the first, it shot us in the foot.”

Added Joel Eriksson Ek: “We didn’t play hard enough or smart enough with the puck in the first period, and after that, we played better and that’s how we need to play to win games.”

The Wild played better in the second and cut the deficit in half thanks to Pat Maroon’s fourth goal this season, which ended his 14-game goalless drought.

The Wild made a strong push in the third period and dominated play with a 21-14 Corsi edge and 73.63 percent of the expected goal share at five-on-five.

“We dictated the game and gave ourselves a chance to win,” Hynes said of the second and third periods.

But they couldn’t get past Jacob Markstrom, whose 28-save performance delivered the Wild their third loss in a row, which is their longest losing skid under Hynes. Fleury did his job in net, too, with 30 saves on 32 shots for a .938 save percentage as Calgary’s third goal was an empty-better goal from Blake Coleman with 57 seconds.

Despite the injuries, the Wild found ways to win during Hynes’ first month as coach. But, while they’re still playing well for the most part, the absences are starting to hurt the Wild results-wise at a dire time with three straight losses after going 11-3 in Hynes’ first 14 games.

For now, the positive is the Wild have given themselves a chance to win in all three losses. But the play has to turn into wins sooner rather than later as their playoff hunt continues.

“We’re not faltering at all in our belief of what we got going here,” Middleton said.

“We’re still building here,” Pat Maroon said. “ We’re still doing a lot of good things here. We’re trending in the right direction. We just got to find a way to get out of this losing streak.”