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 pesky Kraken on Monday night at Climate Pledge Arena to split their four-game trek.

“That was a great effort by our whole team,” Marcus Johansson said. “It wasn’t easy tonight. A few guys short, and we dug in there, and I think we showed a lot of character and grit.”

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

Seattle appeared to 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 (1 minute) drained empty-netters.

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

“Calgary we didn’t play well,” coach John Hynes said. “I thought Vancouver we didn’t find a way to win it, but tonight on a long trip, coming in and playing the way we needed to play and the adjustments that the guys did and how hard they played, it was a good way to end the trip.”

The Wild needed a gutsy effort to stop that losing streak, with Eriksson Ek stepping up: He scored the Wild’s first goal after Zuccarello exited, and later he put the game-winner in motion by assisting on Tarasenko’s goal.

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.

“He’s doing OK,” Hynes said. “I saw him back there now, but I don’t know what the timeline would be.”

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.

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.

“You never want to see one of your guys get hurt,” Hynes said. “So, obviously you feel like there should be a penalty on the play. But to me it’s that he’s OK, and he got up from it.

“It’s more disturbing as a coach when you see one of your players laying on the ice and gets hit like that. But the hit was what it was. The referees called what they called. Just thankful that Zuccy’s, he’s in a good spot right now.”

Once Zuccarello did get up, 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.

“It’s hard hit,” Kaprizov said. “I hope he feels good and can play as fast [as] he can.”

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.

“Just tried to get it to him,” Eriksson Ek said. “Somehow he made an unbelievable tip.”

Said Johansson: “I was hoping for it on the ice. But it worked out. We needed a few goals tonight. It hasn’t gone our way with that lately. But, yeah, fun to see a few go in and get some confidence back in the group.

The nifty play held up because of Kartye’s high stick.

“I got a little worried,” Gustavsson said. “I thought it hit my shoulder and went straight up and then hit me [on] the back of the shoulder.”

But the Wild had their work cut out for them to protect that lead the rest of the way: Nico Sturm and Matt Boldy got hit by pucks, and defenseman Jake Middleton didn’t finish the game.

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 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.

“It’s never fun to see guys get hurt,” Eriksson Ek said. “But I think it showed character to be able to come through in the third period and get the win.”