Postgame: Wild's six-game win streak snapped, and Vanek, Spurgeon injured

Very disappointing loss for the Wild tonight.

Whether it was the last-minute lineup shuffling because of Thomas Vanek's injury or defenseman Jared Spurgeon getting hurt early in the game or whether it was just a letdown from the emotional win over Chicago, the Wild just didn't bring it tonight during a 3-2 loss to Ottawa.

Playing a team that not only played the night before but was eliminated from postseason contention the night before, the Wild looked like the less energetic team. It was beaten to a lot of loose pucks in the D-zone, turned pucks over in the neutral zone and didn't win enough battles for John Torchetti's liking.

Torchetti wants an average of 60 shot attempts per game. The Wild attempted 47, 25 of which were on goal.

"You can't play with really one line," Torchetti said. "We had three lines that really didn't do a good job tonight and we've got to be focused."

The line he liked was the Zach Parise-Mikko Koivu-Charlie Coyle line even though the trio got lost in the first half of the second period. Let's put it this way: When Parise scored tied the game at 1 with his 25th goal and sixth in the past four games 11:13 into the second, he had played three shifts that entire period totaling 1:01, 20 seconds and nine seconds.

Bizarre. Yet, Coyle logged 20:07 when it was over, Koivu logged 20:55 and Parise 20:43. So, they were leaned on late.

"Need more," Torchetti said. "Everybody needs more."

The Wild needs much more from Zucker. He is too fast and skilled to be such a non-factor on so many nights.

And if Vanek can't play in Detroit on Friday or Winnipeg on Sunday, the Wild needs Zucker to make that second line motor.

The Wild flew to Detroit after the game. Torchetti said he expected Vanek and Spurgeon to accompany the team, and then they'll see how they're feeling in the morning.

Spurgeon, Ryan Suter's partner on the top pair, was injured three minutes in and 26 seconds into his second shift of the game. Spurgeon, who valiantly blocked four shots on one shift including three in a row two weeks earlier coincidentally against Ottawa, left the game hobbling and in pain after blocking a Bobby Ryan shot.

If Spurgeon is out long, that could be a big problem. He's one of the Wild's best defenders and entered with three goals in his past three games, including the winning goal Tuesday against Chicago. Defenseman Nate Prosser could enter Friday in Detroit or the Wild could recall Christian Folin.

In addition, Vanek, cross-checked Tuesday by Chicago's Viktor Svedberg during a first-period power play, tried to test an upper-body injury during warmups.

Clearly laboring, Vanek left the ice almost immediately. Right wing Justin Fontaine took Vanek's spot on the second line with Zucker and Mikael Granlund and Chris Porter, scratched seven of the previous nine games, took Fontaine's spot on the fourth line with Jarret Stoll and Jordan Schroeder.

On Spurgeon leaving, Torchetti said, "We should have wanted that extra ice time and want to relish in that moment there for the other D. We just didn't play a solid 60 minutes."

With the Wild trailing 2-1 early in the third period, who else but Haula would tie the score?

In 23 games under Torchetti, Haula has nine goals and 21 points after scoring five goals and 13 points in his first 49 games of the season.

But with 3:57, the Senators, taking advantage of a Pominville turnover at center, scored a fluky winner when defenseman Cody Ceci's centering pass from behind the net caromed in off Haula's shin.

The Wild allowed Ceci to skate from his defensive blue line all the way to the offensive goal line. Marco Scandella whiffed on his attempted check on Ceci right before the goal.

"We let one guy on the forecheck beat us from the neutral zone," Torchetti said. "We've got to do a better job to close that off."

This came a few minutes after the Wild thought it scored the go-ahead goal from Matt Dumba. It looked like referee Tom Kowal lost sight of a Mike Reilly rebound that was never close to being frozen by goalie Craig Anderson, but Kowal apparently told Dumba that he blew it dead because it would have been incidental contact from the start on Nino Niederreiter. Niederreiter looked to be pushed onto Anderson.

Added Jonas Brodin, "We have to be better than that. We can't come out like that [in Detroit]. We've got to be a lot better [Friday] if we're going to win."

Added Pominville, "We didn't get off to the start we wanted. They had jump, they were moving well, they hemmed us in."

On how tough it was to lose on such a fluky goal, Parise said, "You have to look at the game as a whole. Did we play well enough to win the game? We had a chance to win, but I don't think we played as well as we need to."