In St Paul, the Wild rallied from an early 0-3 deficit to the New York Rangers, and then needed a strong effort on penalties to defeat the Rangers, 5-4, on Saturday.
Chris Kreider’s late tip in goal off a shot from Artemi Panarin tied the game, 4-4, and forced extra time which solved nothing.
Matt Boldy was credited with the deciding goal on penalties.
Filip Gustavsson got the start for the Wild, but he yielded three first period goals on just four shots.
Marc-Andre Fleury made 13 saves in relief.
“We gave up three goals, and none of those were on [Gustavsson],” Wild defenseman Brock Faber said. “We’ve left [Gustavsson] out to dry a lot this year. Whatever his stats say, it’s on us. A lot of those are on us. So, we started to come back in the first, get some life, and in the second period we looked in the mirror and turned it around, which was needed. That was needed for us. … We need to try to build on that.”
Jimmy Vesey, Panarin, and Erik Gustafsson scored in the first period to stake the Rangers to the 3-0 lead.
“We scored three goals on three shots,” Rangers captain Jacob Trouba said. “It wasn’t like we were playing outstanding hockey for the first half, that’s just kind of what the score was. I don’t think it was really sitting on the lead. I think we really had our best game from the get-go.
“Like I said, find way to get a point and move on. Regroup.”
New York dropped to 8-2-1, and had their six-game streak snapped.
In the middle frame, the Wild rallied on goals from Ryan Hartman at 5:57, and Joel Eriksson Ek 29 seconds later to trim the deficit to 3-2.
“I just kind of saw him fanning out a little bit,” Faber said. “I’m just glad it got through to him, really.”
Mats Zuccarello tied the game, 3-3, at 1:41 of the third.
“The last couple of games we were unlucky with the bounce,” Minnesota forward Marco Rossi said. “So, now it’s on our side. So, it’s good.”
Minnesota took the lead, 4-3, at 5:20 off a marker from Rossi.
“We couldn’t be disappointed in how we played tonight and how hard we played, how determined we played and composed and all those great words that we use in the game when you have success,” Wild coach Dean Evason said. “Or not even have success but when you do the right things. We did the right things.”
Johnathan Quick made 36 saves in the loss.
“I thought Jonathan was really good, especially in that first period,” New York coach Peter Laviolette said. “There were some breakdowns for us defensively, and like I said, we had too many extended zone shifts where we’re out there for a minute to 1:50 where he’s having to make saves.”
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