For the Minnesota Wild, this is no way to enter the Stanley Cup playoffs.
They are 44-24-7 overall but are 1-7-1 in their last nine and 3-10-1 in their last 14 
games.
On Sunday afternoon, they at last played the way most expect them to perform.
“That’s the best game we’ve played in a month,” Wild head coach Bruce Boudreau said. “We played the right way today. We got it deep when we had to get it deep. You didn’t see the constant odd-man rushes against for the most part. You saw playing the smart way. We had I thought good chances to score and win the game, but we didn’t.”
But in the end, it was the Detroit Red Wings getting the last say in a 3-2 overtime win.
Andreas Athanasiou undressed Devin Dubnyk in the extra session with fake to his backhand that the goalie going left and the puck entering the gaping maw for the winner.
“We’ve got to figure it out,” Wild forward Zach Parise said. “We used to have comfortable leads above teams in the standings, but now all of a sudden that gap has closed. We’ve got to keep winning to get home ice. We’ve got to straighten it out.”
Mike Green and Tomas Tatar each had game-tying goals for the Wings.
Eric Staal and Nate Prosser scored for the Wild in regulation.
“This is a better effort,” Staal said. “You have to feel better about our game as a whole. If you’ve watched us for the last few, we’ve been chasing games for sure, and tonight, we were initiating a little bit more, a little bit more on our toes. With some breaks, we would have extended the lead a little bit more.”
WATCH: All Wild vs. Red Wings highlights
Dubnyk made 16 saves in the loss; the Wild allowed only three shots on goal in the third period.
“Forget about what’s gone on in the last couple weeks here and just play our game. It’s not going to be perfect every night, but if we work and work and get pucks deep and stick to the identity that we’ve created this year, that’s what we need to do to build towards playoffs here,” Dubnyk said after the loss.
You must be logged in to post a comment.