Frustration mounts for Wild: 'We've got to stop losing'

Hours after Mike Yeo admitted that frustration had infiltrated his team after a monthlong win-one, lose-one pattern, Zach Parise barely could utter a sentence.

The Wild has made a habit of falling behind and then agonizingly chasing hockey games. Often times, the Wild even battles back like it did Wednesday night at Xcel Energy Center to force overtime with the Boston Bruins.

But after a night in which the Wild controlled play and had the better of the chances by a wide margin, the Wild didn't come close to that second point thanks to 90 seconds of terrible hockey in overtime before Loui Eriksson ended things for a 3-2 Bruins victory.

"We've got to stop losing," said Parise, adding the mood around the team is "not great. It's frustrating. Frustration for us right now."

Since a four-game winning streak in mid-November, the Wild has treaded water. It hasn't won consecutive games since Nov. 16 and 20 and is 5-5-2 in the past 12 games. It is 2-2-2 in its past six at home and sits 10th in the Western Conference, two points behind eighth-place Los Angeles and eight points behind Saturday's opponent, Nashville, which is third in the Central Division.

Remember, the top three teams in each division are assured playoff spots.

"Confidence is probably an issue with a lot of guys and even as a team," said Jason Pominville, who forced overtime with 8 minutes, 21 seconds left in regulation when a Ryan Suter pass pinballed off David Krejci's leg and Pominville's skate. "It has been tough. It's frustrating when you're in those tight games. We've battled back [but are] just finding ways to lose instead of finding ways to win.

The Wild was fortunate to get to OT. It took some puck luck in a game the Wild had absolutely none.

That was obvious early. With the score 1-1 after Carl Soderberg and Kyle Brodziak exchanged goals 27 seconds apart, Patrice Bergeron took a goofy shot just over the blue line that sailed under Wild goalie Niklas Backstrom's armpit.

Like rock skipping on a lake, a puck heading wide skipped off the ice, changed direction and stunned Backstrom for a 2-1 Boston lead.

"You feel stupid to let in a goal like that," said Backstrom, who despite being ill got the start because Darcy Kuemper also is ill. "It wasn't like I wasn't following it. I was tracking it good."

Then, in the second period, seldom-used Bruins backup Niklas Svedberg denied all 20 shots he faced as the Wild tilted the ice. Backstrom had to make only one big save, which actually was an incredible one to rob Torey Krug.

"Just one of those [games] where you feel like you waste because you're having a tough time [scoring]," Pominville said.

The only time the Wild didn't dominate was predictably a 73-second 5-on-3 power play that featured the usual cast of Pominville, Granlund, Suter, Parise and Mikko Koivu. The fivesome registered one shot and frustrated fans to no end as they passed around the perimeter and had shots blocked.

On one play, Koivu had half the net to shoot at and didn't. Instead, he tried a backdoor, cross-crease pass that didn't connect with Granlund.

"It's not a personnel question, it's not an X's and O's thing," Yeo insisted. "It's just the mentality that we went out with."

The Wild's frustration is overbearing. Yeo said confidence won't magically reappear, so it's up to the team to find some positivity.