Scoring futility puts Wild one loss from season's end tonight in Vegas

Kevin Fiala smacked his stick over the back of the Vegas net.

He had darted in between the Golden Knights defense before getting off a backhand that narrowly missed. Seconds later, The Wild winger ­went to his forehand and that puck stayed out, too.

Finally, after scooping up the rebound, he shuffled it toward the crease only to have the puck skirt a vacant net and get cleared out by Vegas.

"It's frustrating," Fiala said. "It's not just shots. It's great opportunities that aren't going in."

A scoring recession has dropped the team into a 3-1 hole against the Golden Knights in this best-of-seven first-round series. And if the Wild doesn't snap out of this slump to stave off elimination in Game 5 on Monday night at Vegas, its downfall will look like the epitaphs of other early exits.

"We are getting pucks to the net," coach Dean Evason said. "We are getting people to the net. We are real close to getting that bounce. You gain some of that momentum, and it starts snowballing."

The lopsided ledger for the series isn't the only eyesore the Wild is trying to fix.

After getting shut down 4-0 by the Golden Knights on Saturday in Game 4 at Xcel Energy Center, the Wild hasn't scored in 111 minutes, 30 seconds — a skid that started in the first period of Game 3.

Oddly enough, this rut began right after the Wild had its best execution of the postseason. The team went up 2-0 and then center Joel Eriksson Ek buried a third goal, but a coach's challenge for offside reversed it. Since then, the Wild offense has stalled.

In Game 4, Eriksson Ek did get a puck by Vegas goalie Marc-Andre Fleury but it, too, was called back because of a coach's challenge (this time for goaltender interference).

"We caught a couple of bad breaks with a couple of disallowed goals that don't help our ability to have momentum positively in the scoring end of it," Evason said. "We expect that to turn around."

An opportunistic power play could also help, but the Wild has blanked on all eight of its chances in the series — after finishing the regular season in a 2-for-20 slowdown.

"We just have to move the puck quicker," said Fiala, who has zero goals despite a series-high 18 shots. "They're running around. They're doing a great job, especially on our breakouts. We couldn't get in clearly and make something happen."

Fiala, however, isn't the only Wild goal scorer who's been bottled up.

Rookie sensation Kirill Kaprizov has just one point, an assist, and the rest of the Wild forwards have combined for only seven points. The Wild has shuffled its lineup, adding in Zach Parise and Kyle Rau for Game 4 after the wingers were healthy scratches previously in the series, and Evason juggled combinations on the fly Saturday night.

Still, the Wild is facing a familiar decline in production; the team was limited to two goals or fewer in nine of its last 14 playoff games before this postseason.

Now, the Wild is getting upstaged by the depth of the Golden Knights, who have outscored the Wild 12-4 despite missing No. 1 goal scorer Max Pacioretty because of injury.

"They do a good job at blocking shots and being in shooting lanes," said Eriksson Ek, whose two goals lead the Wild. "I think we have to find ways to get the puck through to get to those rebounds and get in behind their 'D.' "

That's how the Wild has typically capitalized against Vegas, a relatively successful track record that includes a history of playing well at the Golden Knights' T-Mobile Arena.

"It may be something that we can feel good about going down there that we have been able to win games down there in that building," Parise said.

But an even better boost might come from embracing the urgency of its situation.

"We can't say to the guys, 'We're OK,' " Evason said. "We're not OK. We're down 3-1. We're not OK. We have to have desperation in our game."