The Wild picked up another point with an overtime loss to Toronto but at the end of the day they walked away with their fifth straight loss.
The Wild picked up another point with an overtime loss to Toronto but at the end of the day they walked away with their fifth straight loss.
The Minnesota Wild went into Sweden with an opportunity to pick up four much-needed points, but instead walked away with two out of the four possible with two losses, one in a shootout and one in overtime.
It was a chance to find their game, take a little time off and become closer as a team to try and turnaround their three-game losing streak, but instead the Wild have now lost five straight.
They opened today's game in Sweden with the first goal after Mats Zuccarello passed one to Marco Rossi who then fed Jon Merrill streaking in from the point.
Rossi, 21, had a great weekend. Wild head coach Dean Evason told the media after yesterday's game that Rossi has been the Wild's best forward this year, and today was another good game for the young center.
But, about 10 minutes later, Jared Spurgeon went to the box after a questionable call, and Auston Matthews scored on the power play under ten seconds later, tying the game at 1-1.
The Maple Leafs took control after that and Mitch Marner connected with Matthew Knies across the ice for a one-timer, which gave the Leafs a 2-1 lead.
Down 2-1 in the second period, the Wild had three power play chances to get back in the game. But after five shots, the Wild walked out of the second period with no goals on three good chances.
Toronto then scored early in the period when Morgan Rielly ripped home a shot from Matthews and Marner that Marc-Andre Fleury appeared to not see with a screen in front of him.
The Wild did rally back though as Jake Middleton pulled the Wild within one with his point shot after a good shift by Joel Eriksson Ek, Ryan Hartman, and Marcus Foligno.
Then Brock Faber continued to shine as he walked into the offensive zone past a Leafs defender and threw one in front of the net where Zuccarello banged home the loose puck to tie the game at 3-3.
Minnesota's two third period goals forced overtime for the second straight game but William Nylander, who had an assist earlier, was caught alone past the Wild defenders and went across his body in front of net before slipping the puck past Fleury's blocker.
In the last five games, the Wild have lost all five and only have five wins through 17 games. They haven't been able to score, and the top six forwards haven't been able to produce almost anything at even strength.
In the last 11 games the Wild have scored five even-strength goals from Kirill Kaprizov, Marcus Johansson, Matt Boldy, Rossi, Zuccarello, and Eriksson Ek and in the last five games they have scored three 5v5 goals: two from Zuccarello and one from Rossi.
There's no doubt that the Wild's star players need to pick it up if they want to turn around their 5-8-4 record through the first 17 games because once you get to the 25-30 game mark in the NHL, it will become extremely hard to try and claw back in the standings.