Maddening odd-man rush and power-play execution doom Wild in San Jose

Very winnable hockey game for the Wild tonight, yet just 45 seconds after Christian Folin's first NHL goal tied the hockey game 63 seconds into the third period, the Wild gave up the eventual winning goal to Joe Pavelski.

Just a terrible shift after the tying goal, after supposedly getting the momentum back.

Darcy Kuemper fell on the knife for misreading Joe Thornton and thinking he was going to throw the puck at the net. But Thomas Vanek's lack of defense was costly when he first hit the brakes and didn't check Pavelski when he had the puck along the boards, then let him skate into the faceoff circle all alone.

Thornton crossed a perfect pass to a wide-open Pavelski and he nailed the open net. Kuemper said by the time he recovered from the misread, Pavelski had the puck.

But the story of this game was an atrocious 0 for 2, shotless power play (I know, what else is new?) and maddening inefficiency on four shotless 2-on-1's. So, in total, six shotless 2-on-1's and power plays.

On three 2-on-1's in the first period and one in the second, the Wild didn't register a single shot on goal.

Minutes in the game, Zach Parise flubbed a Mikael Granlund pass with virtually the entire net open. Later, Kyle Brodziak rang the crossbar on a shorthanded rush. After that, Granlund led Vanek on an odd-man rush, but they fouled each other up with a miscommunication. Actually, it was no communication when Granlund expected Vanek to go left down the wall, and he instead crossed to his right in front of Granlund. Granlund just coughed up the puck almost like he was passing to an official.

Earlier in the period, Couture's extended reach denied Vanek of a wraparound goal.

"That's the story of the game to me," coach Mike Yeo said. "You get one or two 2-on-1's, you're thrilled. You get four 2-on-1's and don't get shots on them, it's tough to generate those type of opportunities, especially on the road. You've got to capitalize."

The Wild also failed to register a shot on two power plays, one with a chance to tie in the third, and the Wild is now 1 for 45 on the road on the power play.

Yeo said it's simple. The Wild's goals the past few games, particularly Tuesday against the Islanders, have come by getting pucks to the net and crashing it. The Wild didn't attempt to do either on those power plays.

The one thing the Wild was good at was dumping the puck and watching the aggressive Stalock come out each time to ruin the forecheck. The other thing the Wild was good at was failed passes on one-timers.

On the penalty kill, the Wild gave up a goal to former Wild defenseman Brent Burns, who leads NHL blue-liners with nine. It came after Stalock came out to nearly the blue line to stop Erik Haula's soft clear. That trapped Ryan Suter, Spurgeon and Brodziak, and their 55-second shift ended with a Burns deflected shot and goal.

Stalock, the second Minnesotan to ever play the Wild, got the win with 18 saves. Barely tested in my opinion with the missed chances on odd-man rushes and shockingly little sustained pressure in the offensive zone, but he did rob Spurgeon with 2:40 left.

Yeo liked the way the Wild defended, but offensively, he wants more to the inside. And when I say harder, those 2-on-1's are basically what I'm talking about where we're looking for the nice play. I look at how we scored our goals last game and when we score goals, we're a team that's hard to the net and that I think opens up plays to our skill more often. If we're not aggressive to the net, it's too easy to defend."

Disappointing because of Folin's bomb through a Jason Zucker screen to tie the game early in the third.

"I just remember getting the puck on the blue line and I shot it," he said. "I got it pretty good and it just went in. I'll take that as my first goal. It's very exciting to score your first goal. I'm not really a goal scorer, so it's always fun to get a goal here and there."

In the meantime, the Wild, which yes has played fewer games than every team ahead of it in the standings, is now five points behind eighth-place San Jose in 10^th place.

Saturday's game at Arizona is big. The Coyotes are reeling. They have lost seven of eight, are in the midst of a franchise-worst eight-game home losing streak and were smoked at home tonight by Nashville. The Wild needs to go in there and get itself a confidence win.

If not, things could get pretty stressful heading into Tuesday's game at nemesis Chicago.