After years of being known for its stingy defending, the Wild's reputation now includes its high-scoring offense.
Mason Marchment's hat trick sends Wild's home streak to a crashing halt
Mats Zuccarello and Kirill Kaprizov each had a goal and assist for the Wild, but not much else went right in a 6-2 loss to Florida. It was Minnesota's first regulation loss at Xcel Energy Center since Nov. 16.
February 19, 2022 at 5:04AM
The team's performance in front of its own net of late only reinforces that shift.
More porous play in Wild territory led to another lopsided loss, a 6-2 lesson from the Panthers on Friday in front of 18,300 that ended the Wild's six-game win streak at home with its first regulation loss at Xcel Energy Center since Nov. 16 after a 12-0-1 run.
Overall, the Wild has dropped two in a row for the first time since a five-game skid Dec. 11-Jan. 1.
"This is a good eye opener for us that we need to play well in our zone," Jordan Greenway said.
Florida's Mason Marchment scored a hat trick, Jonathan Huberdeau registered his league-leading 51st assist, and goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky pocketed 24 saves.
Mats Zuccarello and Kirill Kaprizov each had a goal and assist for the Wild, with Kaprizov's 50th career tally coming in his 100th game.
That finish hinted at a promising start for the Wild, as Kaprizov capitalized on the power play 7 minutes, 7 seconds into the first period when he posted up along the goal line and directed in a slap pass from captain Jared Spurgeon.
Kaprizov's team-leading 23rd goal of the season extended his point streak to four games, and the winger also became the first NHLer to eclipse 110 points through his first 100 games since Pittsburgh's Evgeni Malkin had 114 in 2006-07; Kaprizov is at 112 points.
As for Spurgeon, his assist was his fourth over his past three games with three of those coming on the power play.
But the Wild didn't hold that lead for long, not when the Panthers flipped a one-goal deficit into a one-goal advantage in a breezy 2:27 on three shots.
Marchment jammed in his own rebound at 10:02 before finishing off a backhand pass from Anton Lundell at 12:29.
The Wild considered challenging Marchment's goal for goaltender interference against Cam Talbot but opted against it.
"We just thought [the puck] had momentum going forward and they likely would've said that it was already going in anyway before [Talbot] got smacked," said coach Dean Evason, who mentioned the Wild wasn't worse than the Panthers but made worse mistakes.
By 8:38 of the second, Florida was ahead 3-1 after Huberdeau passed off to Anthony Duclair for a one-timer and then 1:41 into the third period, Aaron Ekblad crept in from the point to wire in a shot on the power play. He and Duclair each finished with a goal and assist, while Huberdeau assisted on two goals. The Panthers went 1-for-3 on the power play.
"We can't expect to come out here every night and score five goals," Greenway said. "We gotta lock it down on 'D' to help ourselves out."
In typical Wild fashion, the team attempted a comeback before suffering just its fourth regulation loss when scoring first.
After Ryan Hartman leveled Duclair, Florida retaliated to put the Wild on the power play and the unit converted for the second time in five chances when Kaprizov set up Zuccarello at 9:42.
This was the third straight multipoint game for Kaprizov and Zuccarello, who has 10 points over his past 13. The goal also boosted Zuccarello to 50 points for the first time since 2017-18.
- NHL standings: Conference | Wild Card
Amid that momentum, the Wild pulled Talbot but Florida nixed the rally with an empty-net goal from Carter Verhaeghe at 13:18, and Marchment completed the second hat trick against the Wild in as many games, also into an empty net, 1:15 later.
Talbot had 29 saves after he was also in net for the 6-3 loss at Winnipeg on Wednesday. Evason referred to that outcome and this one to the Panthers as alarming.
"I don't think we're getting out of our end real clean these last few games," Jon Merrill said. "We've got to come back together as a five-man unit, communicate and make little plays coming out of our end. We're trying to be a little too cute."
That tendency isn't just stalling the defense; it's also interrupting the offense, which hasn't been able to bail out the Wild for those miscues.
"Good defense leads to good offense, and that's what we've been good at," Talbot said. "We create the turnovers in our zone, we go down, then we make the pretty plays. Right now, we're making a few too many errors in our zone, myself included, and it's costing us."
The NHL’s coaching carousel revealed itself again, a fight reminded us what has changed, and of course there was unpredictable matter involving a goalie.
