Takeaways: Wild offense sputters in fifth consecutive loss, this one to Penguins

Trying a different strategy didn’t work for the Wild.

After opening the scoring for the first time in six games, the Wild blew their lead in a 4-1 loss to the Penguins on Thursday night at Grand Casino Arena that extended the Wild’s season-long losing streak to five games.

“We were the better team in the first period,” coach John Hynes said, “and they were the better team in the second and third.”

Pittsburgh’s Bryan Rust broke a 1-1 tie 6:29 into the third period to settle the goaltending duel between the Wild’s Filip Gustavsson and Pittsburgh’s Tristan Jarry with the first of three third-period goals for the Penguins.

Gustavsson finished with 30 saves, while Jarry had 26.

The Wild’s last win — and only victory in their past nine games — was Oct. 20 at the New York Rangers.

“For some reason, we’re letting the frustration creep in our game,” Wild veteran forward Marcus Foligno said.

Marcus Johansson found a net-crashing Kirill Kaprizov for a redirect past Jarry 10:16 into the first period for Kaprizov’s team-leading seventh goal and Johansson’s fifth point during a four-game streak.

Later in the period, Evgeni Malkin gobbled up a puck that bounced off Foligno and flung it by Gustavsson, but the goal was immediately called back because of goaltender interference.

Pittsburgh challenged the call, but video review confirmed former Wild forward Justin Brazeau bumped Gustavsson before Malkin’s shot and the Wild stayed ahead 1-0.

Gustavsson was hit again in the second period, with the Penguins’ Ville Koivunen sliding into the Wild net, but Koivunen was tripped up by Ryan Hartman so Ryan Shea’s shot as Koivunen cleared the crease counted at 2:18.

Pittsburgh continued to test the Wild the rest of the second, including a shorthanded breakaway from another former Wild forward in Connor Dewar, and that set the stage for the Penguins’ comeback in the third period.

Shea connected with Rust for a back-post tap-in before Pittsburgh scored again just 1:01 later on its only power play, with Ben Kindel getting enough of a bouncing puck to elude Gustavsson.

“It’s getting worse,” Gustavsson said of of the PK. “We’ve got to figure something out.”

As for the Wild, their power play blanked on four tries, including two in the first period.

Anthony Mantha added an empty-netter with 2:42 left.

“We got a little bit lost in our game where we just for some reason we like to spread it out and play like they did,” Foligno said. “That’s not us. First period was good, and we’re up 1-0. Frustrating.”

“In the second, we got out-skated,” Hynes said. “We got outcompeted. We didn’t win a lot of faceoffs. I think we never started with the puck, and our execution wasn’t great. I think we fed their momentum, and they were the better team in the second half of the game.”

The Wild’s lull arrived later than usual, in the second period rather than the first, but it stung just the same.

If they had more to show from the control they had early, perhaps taking advantage of one or both of those power plays, they might have avoided Pittsburgh’s takeover in the second. At the minimum, they would have been better prepared for it.

Instead, after picking up a point in their last two hard-fought overtime losses, this performance feels like a missed opportunity that again spotlights the Wild’s biggest issue 12 games in, and that’s their inconsistency.

“Why did we get out-skated?” Hynes said. “Why did we win a lot of faceoffs in the first period and then we didn’t win any faceoffs in the second half? Typical little things. We lose the faceoff, and then you have the box-out.