Matt Boldy, Joel Eriksson Ek, Jonas Brodin, Zach Bogosian on IR as Wild start road trip

The Wild say they aren’t panicking.

They didn’t when they had only three wins after the first month of the season, so they certainly aren’t now after three straight losses in mid-January — one of which came in overtime.

“This is kind of expected,” forward Nico Sturm said. “Every team goes through it every year. There is no way we’re just gonna keep cruising through the season and things are going our way.”

But this slide has their attention, especially with forwards Matt Boldy and Joel Eriksson Ek going on injured reserve, joining defensemen Jonas Brodin and Zach Bogosian. All have lower-body injuries.

Boldy was a surprise addition to that list after he played in Thursday’s loss to the Jets. He, Eriksson Ek and Brodin are all on Olympic teams, with that tournament three weeks away.

Wild players said there are lessons to be learned from a 6-2 dusting by Central Division rival Winnipeg on home ice.

“We’ve been playing some really good hockey,” veteran winger Mats Zuccarello said. “So, it’s important that we don’t dig ourselves down in a hole and then lose confidence.”

They botched a dominating start by taking two costly penalties. After an offensive-zone high stick by Boldy, a trip on the penalty kill by Marcus Foligno put Winnipeg on a 5-on-3 power play that the Jets capitalized on after going shotless to that point. That’s right: Winnipeg didn’t even throw the puck on the Wild’s net through the first 14 minutes, 4 seconds.

Then a one-goal deficit ballooned to three. In eight of the final 11 seconds of the first period, an icing and a lost faceoff resulted in the fastest two goals scored against the Wild at home in franchise history.

But it was penalty trouble, again, that sabotaged a Wild comeback.

Zuccarello took another stick infraction shortly after the Wild scored to eat into their three-goal deficit. As he was exiting the penalty box, the Jets parlayed a keep-in into a goal. Their next tally was officially on the power play after Sturm was sent off for abuse of officials, the center frustrated because a collision between Quinn Hughes and Winnipeg goalie Connor Hellebuyck during a breakaway for Hughes didn’t result in a penalty.

“It wasn’t a good night for us,” coach John Hynes said, “but to me it reinforces some of the things that are important [like] penalty discipline, not taking them in the offensive zone, right? Those things can change a game.”

“We’ve been extremely disciplined the whole year,” he said. “We’ll get back to that.”

But they’ll have to rediscover who they’ve been without who made them.

Jonas Brodin is out week-to-week with a lower-body injury that Hynes said had been building for the defenseman.

Hynes, after Thursday’s game, did not rule out Brodin for the Olympics but mentioned Brodin and the team would have an “upfront” discussion once there’s clarity on his situation.

“Maybe he’s ready before the Olympics. Maybe he’s not,” Hynes said. “We don’t know at this point in time, but I think that’s got to play out a little bit and see what’s going on, and then we’ll go from there.”

But after the game, Hynes said their statuses changed, and on Friday both Eriksson Ek and Boldy went on IR.

The Wild had defenseman David Spacek, a fifth-round draft pick by the Wild in 2022 whose dad Jaroslav is a former NHLer, step into action vs. the Jets for his NHL debut, and they also called up Carson Lambos from the minors. Lambos was sent back to Iowa on Friday, and defenseman David Jiricek and forwards Hunter Haight and Ncolas Aube-Kubel were called up to fly east.

Spacek, who was named to Czechia’s Olympic team, was driving to Costco in Iowa when he learned he was joining the Wild, and he had his mom Lenka, brother Jacob and girlfriend Simona in attendance.

“They were looking towards this moment since I started playing hockey,” Spacek said, “and it’s a big accomplishment for me and my family.”

The Wild have won before with a patchwork lineup, but the circumstances are different: They’re carrying the toll of having played half a season, and the schedule isn’t easing up as they cram 10 games into a 19-day span before the Olympic break.

But they should feel urgency.

“It gets dangerous real quick,” Sturm said. “Some teams get hot behind you, and then they’re right back there.”

After all, there is more at stake than this three-game skid.