Sluggish Wild fall 5-4 to Blue Jackets in overtime

Marcus Johansson's effectiveness at carrying the puck into the offensive zone is why he was promoted to the Wild's first power play unit in the absence of the injured Matt Boldy.

But a supposed bobble by Johansson at the blue line overturned what would have been the go-ahead goal for the Wild in the third period, one of many mishaps for them during an off-night against the Blue Jackets on Saturday at Xcel Energy Center that ended in a 5-4 overtime loss.

"It's just frustrating," Johansson said. "They said that I lost control of the puck. I had the puck from our own end. I put it under his stick and lifted his stick. They said I lost control. But who took it from me?

"I don't know. Very frustrating. If I make a move on the blue line, I feel I still have the puck. But it is what it is. Frustrating."

Tied at 3, Johansson's move into Columbus territory culminated in Mats Zuccarello's second goal of the night and a 4-3 edge for the Wild with 8 minutes, 6 seconds left in regulation.

But after the Blue Jackets challenged the play to check if it was off-side, the NHL determined Johansson preceded the puck into the zone without possession and that negated the entire sequence.

"I think everybody in the world sees him having possession of that puck," coach Dean Evason said.

The Kings' Pierre-Luc Dubois had a kicked puck count as a goal after a controversial video review decided his stick caught a piece of the puck before it went in the net. Dubois scored again 12 seconds to pave the way for a 7-3 win for Los Angeles.

"I'm not gonna throw the refs under the bus because I don't know who made the call," Evason said. "I don't know if it's the refs on the ice, if it's [the league in] Toronto who made the call. But it just doesn't make any sense to anybody. Everybody's just like, there's no possible way he did not have possession."

In the aftermath, Columbus rookie Adam Fantilli's first NHL goal on the power play with 5:19 left in the third gave the Blue Jackets to a 4-3 advantage and although Johansson — fittingly — retaliated with 2:59 to extend the action, Jack Roslovic saddled Columbus with a well-deserved win after he wove through the Wild and sunk his team's 54th shot of the game behind Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson at 3:07 of overtime. Gustavsson stopped a career-high 49, while his counterpart Elvis Merzlikins had a much lighter workload (24 saves).

"Even when we had pucks completely on our tape, we didn't make sound plays to get out of [the defensive zone]," Evason said. "It was like we're all in panic mode for whatever reason, which makes no sense. We've got to do some work. We've got to tighten some stuff up, for sure."

Despite completing a back-to-back and playing without their superstar scorer Patrik Laine, the Blue Jackets were relentless and that continued the Wild's trend of poor starts.

By 6:10, the Blue Jackets doubled their lead when Kent Johnson wired in an offensive-zone faceoff win.

After that, the Wild woke up.

"We need to be better from the start," Johansson said, "and that's just facts."

Just 1:11 later, Dakota Mermis started the comeback with a shot from above the left circle, Mermis' first goal in the NHL since March 6, 2020, when he was with New Jersey.

Then another 54 seconds after that, Ryan Hartman found a wide-open Zuccarello.

At 7:36, Boone Jenner sent a loose puck in front into a yawning Wild cage with Gustavsson off to the side after a scramble.

The Wild persevered after the disallowed goal, with Johansson's equalizer his second point of the game and his new-look line with Joel Eriksson Ek and Pat Maroon combining for six points. But Columbus was frequently one step ahead, and that's where the Blue Jackets finished.