ST. PAUL — The Minnesota Wild’s penalty kill has been a major letdown this season and has costed them too many times. But that's not what costed the Wild (17-18-4) in their 4-0 shutout loss to the Dallas Stars (23-11-5) inside Xcel Energy Center on Monday night.
Two nights after scoring twice on the man advantage — both goals scored by Matt Boldy — in a 4-3 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets, the Wild's power play faltered and went 0-for-6 with just seven combined shots en route to their fourth loss in a row on home ice.
Not to mention the Wild's no-show power play didn't even manage to get a shot on a 47-second five-on-three opportunity in the first period.
“We didn’t want to shoot the puck,” coach John Hynes said of the power play. “We’re just slow in our thought process and looking for a better play when the right play was to shoot the puck. There’s things that I think are easily fixable.”
“I hate to break it to you — but it’s just a momentum killer to be honest with you,” Pat Maroon said of the shorthanded goals, “and it’s unfortunate because we did have a good first.”
Special team woes are a familiar script for the Wild against the Stars.
The Wild allowed five power play goals and two shorthanded markers while going 1-for-5 on the power play in their 8-3 loss to Dallas at home on Nov. 12. On Monday, the Wild allowed a power play goal and two shorthanded markers.
The Wild's abysmal special teams performance against the Stars is becoming a trend. After all, look at the playoffs last April. The Stars went 37.5 percent on the power play and 81.8 on the penalty kill against the Wild, who went 18.2 percent on the man advantage and 62.5 percent on the penalty kill.
“It’s unacceptable against a rival,” Brock Faber said, (and) it’s unacceptable against any team in this league. …
“It doesn't matter who's in and out for our lineup, it doesn't matter who's in and out for their lineup. We have to be better, and that was a horrible showing. (We) shot ourselves in the foot. We've got to be better next time we play them.”
Added Hynes: “I thought that was the biggest difference in the game. We had six power plays to their two, and a 5-on-3, and gave up two shorties. It’s hard enough to win in this league; You can’t have those situations where you not only don’t execute, (but) you give up goals.”
As a result, Wild failed to gain ground in the wild-card race and lost out on two points versus a Central Division foe. The Wild have now allowed 10 special teams goals and have been outscored 12-3 in their first two meetings with the Stars.
The Wild played a solid first period — outshooting the Stars 12-4 with 70 percent of the five-on-five Corsi and expected goal share — but still found themselves down 1-0 thanks to a leaky power play. Roope Hintz opened the scoring for the Stars with a shorthanded goal midway through the first, and the score remained 1-0 until the Stars scored three times in the third period.
The Wild were simply outplayed in the final two periods and recorded only 11 shots, including just two in the third. The Wild are struggling to score at five-on-five right now and only have five even-strength goals in the past six games.
“We gotta find a way to make a push as a team,” Maroon said. “We gotta play in these tight games. We gotta learn to play in these tight games and learn to shut teams down when it’s a 1-0 hockey game and try to get one there. Maybe it’s a different story but we gotta find a way to play better in these tight games."
The Stars took a 2-0 lead when Tyler Seguin beat Marc-Andre Fleury under the arm from the right circle 1:28 into the third. Then Radek Faska scored the Stars' second shorthanded goal of the night on a one-timer with 11:38 remaining, and Jason Robertson scored a minute and 35 seconds later on the power play from the right circle.
What wasn't familiar Monday was Matt Murray, a 25-year-old undrafted goalie who made his season debut on an emergency loan. Murray allowed 10 goals on 64 shots last season between his first three NHL appearances.
On Monday, he was sharp and had his best game yet. Murray, who saved over two goals above expected per Natural Stat Trick, stopped all 23 shots the Wild threw his way for his first NHL shutout in just his fourth game.
On the other end, Fleury allowed four goals on 20 shots in his fifth consecutive start. Fleury, who is tied with Patrick Roy at 551 wins, remains one win shy of taking sole possession of second all-time in regular-season victories.
But that may be on hold with top goalie prospect Jesper Wallstedt (.917 save percentage in 20 starts with the Iowa Wild) potentially making his NHL debut Wednesday in Dallas. “It’s certainly a consideration, for sure,” Hynes said.
The Wild face the Stars again on Wednesday in Dallas, and it's safe to say special teams will be a major storyline.
While Marcus Foligno returned Monday, the Wild are still depleted and are without two key power play pieces in injured Kirill Kaprizov and Jared Spurgeon. Jonas Brodin, Filip Gustavsson and Vinni Lettieri also remain out.
But the Wild have to figure out how to fix this without them right now ahead of Wednesday's game and as Hynes said, “execute better” and “play smart.”
“I just didn’t think mentally we were sharp enough in lots of areas in our game to give ourselves a good chance to win it,” Hynes said.
“That’s something we’ve got to rectify coming into the next game.”
“We’re a better hockey team than what we’re showing right now,” Maroon said.