Wild return home from a week on the road with a few more on the injury list

SEATTLE – The Wild aren’t returning home as the same team that left on a road trip eight days ago.

They lost their 12-game point streak along the way and dropped consecutive games in regulation for the first time since Oct. 22-25, the team’s first official rut of their rebirth.

But they’re also more depleted.

After leaving three injured players behind in Minnesota, they went down another two at their last stop. Mats Zuccarello fell face-first into the ice after he was leveled by a neutral-zone hit from Seattle’s Vince Dunn in the first period Monday, and defenseman Jake Middleton left in the third.

Matt Boldy and Nico Sturm were pelted with pucks, but coach John Hynes figured they were fine.

“But,” Hynes said, “you never know what tomorrow morning is going to bring when everyone wakes up.”

Not on the trip were center Marco Rossi, winger Marcus Foligno and forward Vinnie Hinostroza, all of whom have a lower body injury.

If their effort Monday to shrug past the Kraken 4-1 despite being shorthanded is any indication, the Wild not only have what it takes to stay focused but are unfazed by the adversity.

“It’s not easy,” veteran forward Marcus Johansson said. “It’s a lot of games and a lot of traveling. It’s the same for everyone. It is what it is. We have to battle through it.

“That’s why I feel a game like this can help a lot. It’s a hard-fought, tight game, and we found a way to get the points, and we turned this into an OK road trip instead of a not so very good one, and we’re going to take that with us and build on it the next game.”

Whether it’s dealing with injuries or needing the last game to lock up a playoff berth like last season, this core is used to tough circumstances. And they have the fifth most points in the NHL.

Still, the position they found themselves in Monday was a doozy.

Hynes said Zuccarello was OK, but he wasn’t sure when the veteran winger would be able to return.

“A lot of guys stepped up,” Johansson said, “and there was a lot of guys that had to play a lot of minutes.”

The game was testy after Zuccarello left, and rookie Danila Yurov was penalized for going after Dunn in the aftermath of the hit.

But the Wild didn’t unravel.

“I liked our response and the fact that we played hard and we played smart,” Hynes said. “That’s what you want to do in those situations is answer with a little physicality of our own but [also] that competitive nature that makes this team good, and I thought we brought that.”

Kirill Kaprizov and Vladimir Tarasenko added empty-netters, with Eriksson Ek also assisting on the latter for the center’s statement game of the season.

“He was excellent tonight,” Hynes said. “He was really solid in all facets of the game, and it was nice to see him get on the board scoring-wise because I think he’s played some really solid hockey. But tonight he was at a high level.”

Eriksson Ek’s goal was a jam in tight, and Johansson’s redirect also came right at the crease — an encouraging trend for an offense that had a combined four goals over the three previous games on the trip.

“Getting players there, winning battles around the net, a lot of goals come from broken plays in front of the net and just getting to those loose pucks and making plays out of those scrums,” Eriksson Ek said. “It’s hard to beat teams clean getting into the zone and make plays.

“We have players that can do that, too. But if we want to score more, it’s getting to those hard areas and getting the puck there at the same time.”

“It’s a little frustrating trip,” said goaltender Filip Gustavsson, who had 23 saves vs. the Kraken. “We definitely wanted to get away with more points, especially against Calgary and Vancouver there. But we had some trouble before and still have a little trouble against those teams.”

Since the Wild tend to match up better against the better teams, maybe that’s a good sign that two of their four matchups on the next homestand at Grand Casino Arena are against top-three clubs, beginning Thursday vs. Dallas.

They won’t be at full strength, but they do have a recent example of how to succeed anyway.