The good news for the Wild tonight is Phoenix lost at home to Buffalo and Dallas lost in overtime to New Jersey, so the damage of a 5-4 loss wasn't overly detrimental.
One game after its most impressive win of the season by handing Anaheim only its second home regulation loss, the Wild fell behind 4-1 in Denver before seeing its comeback fall short.
The Wild just didn't execute in the first two periods, taking three minors in a 5 ½ minute span of the first and seeing that momentum filter into the second.
The Wild gave up three goals in the second – a softie by John Mitchell, a soft play along the wall that resulted in Paul Stastny's tally (he looked offsides on replays) and a Maxime Talbot goal when he smacked the stick of the posterchild for scrutiny Kyle Brodziak, who was slow to move the puck out of harm's way and thus basically scored an own goal.
That ended Darcy Kuemper's night. Well, sorta. He was going to get pulled, but Niklas Backstrom's mask was in the locker room, and when he didn't retrieve it fast enough for the ref's liking, the ensuing faceoff occurred. Finally, at the next stoppage, Backstrom replaced Kuemper.
Before Zach Parise was injured, many fans and media members had been clamoring for Yeo to try Parise with Mikael Granlund and Jason Pominville. In Anaheim, on the power play and a few even-strength shifts, the chemistry was there.
Yeo didn't start them together tonight, but he ended them together, uniting them in the third period. They were fantastic, generating sustained pressure and scoring chances every shift.
Parise followed his 3-point night and winning goal in Anaheim with two goals, two assists and nine shots tonight. Granlund had a goal and two assists, 12 faceoff wins and logged 22 minutes and Pominville had a goal and assist. He scored with 2:14 left -- 11 seconds after Nathan MacKinnon's breakaway goal by Backstrom, which actually gave Backstrom the loss despite Kuemper giving up four goals.