from Michael Russo of Russo's Rants,
1-1 in the third tonight, the Wild generated next to nothing and all it took was one bad shift for the Ducks to get a 3-on-2 down low for a tic-tac-toe winner by Rickard Rakell.
“We gave them that one,” coach Mike Yeo said, upset the Wild let “details” slip that shift, got loose in the neutral zone, didn’t change when it had the chance and boom, game over when at a minimum the Wild was 6:19 from a much-needed point.
Instead, the Wild, 2-6-2 in January, lost for a fifth consecutive time in regulation for the first time since losing six in a row Dec. 19-31, 2013. The Wild will try to be avoiding that Thursday up the freeway in L.A.
“I feel for the guys right now,” said Yeo, the coach of a team that has scored four goals in the past five games and 30 in the past 16 (includes four empty-netters). “Certainly the effort was there. We didn’t give up much at all. But you could see in the third period, again, you’re not scoring and then some of the detail starts to slip. Second goal is a good example of that. I thought we gave them that one. That’s the difficult part right now. We’ve got to play tight. We’ve got to continue to defend as well as we have been, but we can’t lose any focus of that part of our game. But we’ve got to find a way to create some more, there’s no question.”
The Wild is falling fast. Colorado is now one point behind for the top wildcard spot and the Wild is feeling the pressure of Vancouver and Nashville, which sits ninth and 10th three points behind.
Watch the game highlights below...
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