Trailing by a couple of goals, the Wild had the San Jose Sharks right where they wanted them.
As ridiculous as that sounds, the Wild have made a habit of erasing deficits this season, then turning them into unlikely wins.
Unfortunately for the Wild, they couldn’t complete the comeback on Sunday night at Xcel Energy Center, falling 5-3 to the Sharks.
Perhaps this is a lesson the Wild had to learn the hard way. They can’t bank on winning games in which they fall behind.
“You’re playing with fire, obviously,” coach Dean Evason said. “We have been fortunate a couple of times to come back from a couple goals down, and obviously we did it again tonight. But it burnt us in the end.”
Indeed. A back-and-forth contest ended with former Wild defenseman Brent Burns scoring the game-winning goal for the Sharks with a couple of minutes left in regulation. It was an incredible effort by Burns as he corralled the puck, dangled through traffic in front and beat goaltender Kaapo Kahkonen with a backhand flip.
“It sucks,” said Nick Bonino, who was on the ice for the game-winning goal. “Just a broken play. I block it, and it goes right back to his stick. Just a bad bounce there, and then he makes a great play. Just a great player. It’s tough to lose it like that.”
While the Wild will lament some of their missed chances, especially late in the game, they probably didn’t deserve to win based on their body of work. As dynamic as the Wild were down the stretch, they were the complete opposite of that for a good chunk of the game.
“We can’t put ourselves in those situations and expect to win games,” said Nick Bjugstad, who scored his first goal as a member of the Wild in the losing effort. “It’s got to be from the get go.”
It was actually a fast start for the Wild on this particular night, with Zach Parise skillfully finishing off a pretty feed from Kirill Kaprizov early in the first period to make it 1-0. While it wasn’t the flashiest goal, it came thanks to a great play by Kaprizov as he started the sequence with a cheeky play along the boards, then found Parise with a pinpoint pass near the slot.
Unfortunately for the Wild, that was good as it got, as they appeared to fall asleep for the next 15 minutes of play. They looked incapable of completing a pass, and they compounded their lack of execution with a lack of effort.
Truthfully, the Wild didn’t deserve to be leading at intermission, and fittingly, Ryan Donato tied the game at 1-1 late in the first period with a goal against his former team.
“We thought we started fine,” Evason said. “It just kind of got away from us.”
That paved the way for the second period, where the Wild continued to struggle on both ends, and the Sharks made them pay. It started with a goal from Evander Kane, who made it 2-1 after a turnover from Marcus Foligno in the neutral zone.
While it looked like the Wild tied it a couple of minutes later, the Sharks challenged the play, and the officials ruled that Bjugstad interfered with goaltender Martin Jones in the crease. That nullified the goal, and less than a minute later, Noah Gregor made it 3-1 in favor of the Sharks.
That seemed to wake up the Wild. Just like it did on the season-opening road trip. They finished the second period with a flurry with Bjugstad scoring a goal, for real this time, to cut the deficit to 3-2.
That push from the Wild continued into the third period, and Kevin Fiala tied the game at 3-3 with his second goal in as many games.
That simply set the stage for Burns to play hero with a backbreaking goal to make it 4-3 late. Matt Nieto then finalized the score at 5-3 with an empty-net goal.
Asked about flipping the switch only to come up short, Fiala noted that the Wild were upset with their effort for most of the game.
“We were mad at ourselves,” Fiala said. That’s not us. I think we figured it out there. Just tonight it was a little late.”
Which left a sour taste in everybody’s mouth on the way out of the rink.
“We were in the game,” Bonino said. “We have to at least get a point out of that.”
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Wild can’t complete comeback in 5-3 loss to Sharks - TwinCities.com-Pioneer Press
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