ST. PAUL — The shorthanded Minnesota Wild (16-17-4) once again struggled to score without their top players in a 4-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning (19-16-5) inside Xcel Energy Center on Thursday.
The Wild — who moved to 3-15-1 when allowing the first goal — have now lost four games in a row after winning 11 of their first 14 contests under coach John Hynes. The Wild have been outscored 14-6 during this losing skid.
As injuries have mounted at an unideal stretch of the season, the losses have as well, so the Wild have to find ways to win before they get too far behind.
Silence from top players
This makeshift Wild team the past two games has struggled to score and has just two goals to show for. Pat Maroon (against the Flames on Tuesday) and Zach Bogosian (against the Lightning on Thursday) are the only two players who have found the back of the net.
The call-ups have been silent (Sammy Walker, Nic Petan and Jake Lucchini), but more importantly, the Wild’s top forwards (Matt Boldy, Marcus Johansson, Marco Rossi and Ryan Hartman) haven’t provided any game-changing moments.
That was especially true on Thursday. All three of Boldy, Johansson and Rossi failed to record a shot on goal and combined for just five shot attempts. Hartman had four shot attempts, but only had one shot on net. The Wild’s depth didn’t provide an offensive jolt, either. Connor Dewar didn’t have a shot, while Brandon Duhaime had one.
Simply put, the Wild need more from them if they’re going to get out of this skid.
Fleury remains one win away from Roy
With Filip Gustavsson on injured reserve, Marc-Andre Fleury is being heavily relied on in goal right now as the 39-year-old sits at 550 wins — one win away from tying Patrick Roy for second all-time.
The past three games Fleury has started have been losses, but it hasn’t been his fault. He has done his job (eight goals allowed on 8.3 expected goals against) and has given the Wild a chance to win. He has made 82 saves on 90 shots for a .911 save percentage with six of the eight goals against coming on high-danger shots, according to Natural Stat Trick.
Fleury is bound to tie and pass Roy soon, especially since the Wild have five games in the next nine days.
Bogosian scores against former team
Bogosian got the Wild on the board and cut the deficit to 3-1 with 4:25 left in the game when his shot from the right circle beat Andrei Vasilevskiy far side. It marked his first goal since Feb. 21 of last year when he was with the Lightning.
Bogosian logged 18 minutes and 59 seconds alongside Alex Goligoski on the second pair Thursday against his former team. Bogosian, acquired from Tampa Bay in November, hit a career milestone last month when he skated in his 800th career game in the Wild’s loss on Dec. 18 in Pittsburgh. The 33-year-old blueliner has brought some sandpaper to the backend and has four points and a +2 rating through 21 games with the Wild.