ST. PAUL — The Minnesota Wild (3-5-2) fell 5-3 to the New Jersey Devils (6-2-1) Thursday night inside Xcel Energy Center, which extended their losing streak to four games — which includes a 4-3 defeat in New Jersey last week— and their sixth loss in the past seven games.
The Wild went down 3-0, but managed to recover with a pair of goals. Kirill Kaprizov scored his third goal of the season 9:03 into the second period on the power play, which ended his five-game goalless drought.
Then rookie Marco Rossi scored 1:10 into the third to cut the Wild’s deficit to 3-2 for his fourth goal this season and third in the past five games. Matt Boldy got the primary assist on the goal in his first game back from injury that sidelined him the past seven games.
The Devils thwarted the Wild’s comeback with two third-period power play goals with Jake Middleton’s marker sandwiched between them. Boldy recorded his second primary assist on the goal. Filip Gustavsson allowed five goals on 38 shots in the loss and didn’t help matters.
“Honestly the feeling on the bench was we’re coming back for sure, and we did and we were, and they competed — but too little too late,” head coach Dean Evason said. “And we’ve got to get going right from the start.”
Here are three takeaways from the loss:
Playing from behind continues
The Wild once again had a slow start, which resulted in a 2-0 deficit after the first period. Poor first periods have become a trend through the first 10 games of the season, and it’s something that still has to be corrected. And while the Wild are getting accustomed to their slow starts, the result isn't changing.
The Devils scored 3:20 into the game when Alexander Holtz’s rising shot from the edge of the left circle beat Gustavsson after Nathan Bastian fed him the puck from behind the net, which started with Jake Middleton getting beat by Bastian.
“We need that first goal,” Rossi said. “Even if we don’t have the first goal, we can’t panic. We just have to keep going and trust our game (and) trust our identity.”
The Devils then took a 2-0 lead with four minutes and 37 seconds left in the first period on a tic-tac-toe goal. Jesper Bratt entered the zone with ease and sent the puck to Ondrej Palat, who made a cross-crease pass that made for an easy backdoor tap-in for Michael McLeod.
“I think we need to start better and play with the lead," Ryan Hartman said, "and maybe we’ll make life a lot easier on ourselves."
Then the Devils took a 3-0 lead early in the second before the Wild got themselves back in the game. Was it surprising they weren't ready to go from puck drop again after having Monday and Tuesday off?
“We were shocked actually,” Evason said. “It was like, ‘What are we doing? … So that didn’t work, so there’s another approach that can be made — so it’ll happen.”
The Wild simply weren’t good enough in both ends in the first period in what was another lackadaisical start that featured too much puck watching, too many lost puck battles along the boards and a lack of defensive coverage.
The Devils finished the period with 67 percent of the five-on-five expected goal share, according to Natural Stat Trick.
“We play really good at the end of the game,” Rossi said. “That’s how we should start the game.”
Wild change up the lines
One of the few positives in the loss is that the Wild mounted a comeback and didn't allow their sluggish start to take them completely out of it. The Wild separated their top line of Kaprizov-Hartman-Mats Zuccarello to start the second period, and it ended up providing a spark and helped fuel their comeback.
“We shouldn’t have to shake the lines up to get some life in our group,” Evason said.
Rossi centered Kaprizov and Boldy on the top line; Zuccarello joined Joel Eriksson Ek and Marcus Johansson on the second line; and Hartman centered the third line with Marcus Foligno and Pat Maroon while the fourth line remained intact.
“It worked,” Hartman said about whether he was surprised about the changes. It did indeed, and the third period was their best with newfound energy in the game and a noticeably more physical period.
The Wild finished with 62 percent of the five-on-five expected goal share in the third. And while it gave them a spark, it wasn’t enough to even earn a point.
“We’ve got a lot of searching to do here tonight and tomorrow morning and we’ll make some decisions on the lineup,” Evason said. “But certainly we can’t stick with what’s been going on. We give people and our group an opportunity to pull out of it and play better and (with) more energy and pace…we haven’t.”
Penalty kill has another dud
Just like their starts, the Wild’s special teams and especially their penalty kill, have made their life more difficult this season. On Thursday, that stayed true for their penalty kill.
While the Wild went 1-for-2 on the man advantage after going 1-for-13 in their three previous games, the penalty kill allowed three goals on five opportunities. Timo Meier in the second period and Jesper Bratt and Dougie Hamilton in the third all found the back of the net on the power play for the Devils.
The Wild officially now have the league’s worst penalty kill at 63.6 percent after being tied with the Florida Panthers heading into the game. The next worst is the Nashville Predators at 69 percent.
“It just seems like every shot’s going in the net. Every opportunity that we have for a clear, we don’t do it,” Evason said of the penalty kill. “Every chance we have to box a guy out, we don’t do it. Our goaltender is getting screened.”
Regardless, the Wild need to figure it out and fix their penalty kill woes fast. They sit No. 6 in the Central Division with eight points — but Chicago (six points) and St. Louis (seven points) have one and two games in hand, respectively.
“If you’re not confident, then don’t go on the ice,” Evason said. “If you don’t want to play, then don’t play. But we want guys that will play. We’ve been resilient in that room in the past. We expect our group to be resilient again.”