Takeaways: Wild end road trip with 4-1 victory at Seattle

SEATTLE — A deceptively tough road trip for the Wild stayed that way to the very end.

Down to 10 forwards after starting with 11 and then losing Mats Zuccarello to injury, the Wild eked out a 4-1 victory over the Kraken on Monday night at Climate Pledge Arena to split their four-game trek.

Marcus Johansson broke a 1-1 tie 8 minutes, 12 seconds into the third period, deflecting in a Joel Eriksson Ek shot between his legs with his back to the net.

Seattle answered back on the very next shift when Tye Kartye banked the puck in off Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson, but the goal was disallowed because Kartye struck the puck with a high stick.

Kirill Kaprizov (1:15 to go) and Vladimir Tarasenko (51 seconds) drained empty-netters.

Gustavsson made 23 saves, and Philipp Grubauer had 25 for Seattle, which has dropped six in a row.

Every opponent on the Wild’s trip trailed them in the standings, with the Flames and Canucks last in the NHL at the time the Wild faced them. But the Wild had their 12-game point streak spoiled by Calgary and then lost again to Vancouver after shutting out Edmonton at the start.

Zuccarello was hurt late in the first period when he fell face-first into the ice after getting checked by the Kraken’s Vince Dunn, who wasn’t penalized for the hit.

The Wild went with 11 forwards and seven defensemen, with Tyler Pitlick and Ben Jones out and Daemon Hunt subbing in on defense for his first game since Nov. 19.

That meant extra ice time for Kaprizov and Matt Boldy, and the Wild rattled off seven shots before the Kraken got their first.

But Seattle eventually pushed back, and the first period ended tensely after Dunn knocked Zuccarello out of the game.

Dunn connected with Zuccarello just after the puck left Zuccarello’s stick in the neutral zone, and Zuccarello was slow to get up; once he did, he skated over to the brawl that erupted in the corner of the rink after Danila Yurov went after Dunn.

Once the first period finished, both teams were slow to leave the ice, and the scrappiness stuck around for the rest of the game.

Only 1:18 into the second, the Wild capitalized on an Eriksson Ek shot set up by Boldy; the goal was Eriksson Ek’s first in eight games.

But Seattle responded on the power play at 6:48 when Jordan Eberle redirected the puck in at the back post.

The power-play goal was the first given up by the Wild in 10 games; they went 0-for-3 on the power play, while the Kraken were 1-for-3.

Johansson’s goal was also his first in eight games, and the nifty tip held up because of Kartye’s high stick.

Seattle’s power play goal ended a 24-for-24 run by the Wild penalty kill.

BOXSCORE: Wild 4, Seattle 1

NHL standings

The Wild aren’t in trouble, but it feels like they’re at a gut-check crossroads.

They were missing key players before Zuccarello and Sturm got hurt, their offense is still on the fritz, and the schedule isn’t easing up. Mind you, playing against the best has brought out their best.