Skip to content

Wild’s tough turn of events results in rough end to six-game win streak

  • by

SAN JOSE, Calif. — The swing of momentum was enough to make you dizzy as the Wild’s six-game win streak ended with a 5-2 loss to the Sharks on Thursday night.

Down by a goal in the second period and having trouble matching San Jose’s energy, the Wild still found ample reason to gripe at the officials when in a span of seconds Ryan Hartman was high-sticked in the face and Matt Dumba was forced to fight after Matt Nieto on his clean, open-ice hit.

Not only was Jaycob Megna not called for the high-stick after his well-executed stick lift of Hartman, the Wild felt Megna instigated a fight with Dumba after both Kevin Labanc and Megna went after the defenseman in response to his check.

Coach Dean Evason was livid referees Ghislain Hebert and Jordan Samuels-Thomas called only coincidental fighting majors on Dumba and Megna rather than what the Wild felt was textbook instigating. That would have given Megna 17 minutes of penalties and the Wild a power play with a chance to tie.

“I thought that was an instigator … automatic,” said Dumba, who periodically has had to fight for clean checks and in 2018 had his season end when Matthew Tkachuk gave him no choice but to fight after his unpenalized check on Mikael Backlund the week before. . “I mean, two guys don’t make a play on the puck and come right at me. It’s an instigator.”

Evason echoed that sentiment to both officials during an animated meeting at the Wild bench before the third period.

“If you make a clean hit, you shouldn’t have to be confronted by two people before you fight,” Evason said after the loss. “That doesn’t make any sense. One guy grabs him and he jostles with that guy and punches back and forth. And then another guy comes in and he has to fight for a clean hit. That shouldn’t be in our game. That was the key point in the game.”

That’s because of the cause and effect that followed.

If the Wild were awarded a power play, Mason Shaw doesn’t see the ice a minute later.

That’s just a fact.

Instead, Shaw went to check Evgeny Svechnikov, extended his right knee and clipped the forward’s right leg when the San Jose skater hit the brakes in an attempt to avoid the hit.

Hebert’s right arm went sky-high with Svechnikov injured on the ice. Shaw, one of the Wild’s best penalty killers, was assessed a five-minute major for kneeling and a game misconduct. Evason understood why the refs called the penalty, although he added the hit could be debated because he felt Svechnikov tried to avoid the check, which in his eyes led to the leg contact. Dumba, too, said there should be some “accountability on the player taking the hit.”

“You’ve got to protect yourself out here,” he said. “The game happens fast, but it’s just unfortunate it put us in that spot.”

Regardless, on the ensuing major, Timo Meier made the game 3-1 almost immediately with a rocket, then Erik Karlsson, the NHL’s leading scorer among defensemen, registered his fourth point of the game right when the major ended with a beautiful backdoor pass to Oskar Lindblom.

Shaw is quite the story because the 24-year-old rookie earned a job earlier this season after recovering from three reconstructive knee surgeries. And even though Svechnikov returned in the third, it is very possible that the NHL’s Department of Player Safety will levy supplemental discipline on Shaw.

It was still reviewing the play after the game.

“Someone who’s had three ACLs, that’s my last attempt to take someone’s knee out,” Shaw said. “I feel bad because that put our team in a very bad spot and ultimately is the difference in the game. Disappointed in myself from that, but the last thing is my intention to take someone’s knee out.”

Shaw insisted: “I didn’t change my angle. I stayed on pretty much the exact same line where I finished the hit. He tries to get out of the way. I hope he’s all right, obviously. I see he came back in the game.”

The Sharks obviously felt otherwise, and they certainly aren’t fans of Shaw. After the previous meeting between San Jose and Minnesota, the Sharks were incensed that Shaw wasn’t suspended after he concussed defenseman Radim Simek with a check to the head.

Not only did the Shaw penalty turn a 2-1 deficit to 4-1, it caused the Wild to play almost half the game with 10 forwards on the second night of a back-to-back.

That’s because Marcus Foligno was a late scratch with a lower-body injury. He tested his leg in warmups, but after two conversations with assistant athletic trainer Phil Watson and one fruitless line rush where he visibly looked uncomfortable, Foligno skated over to defenseman Alex Goligoski and told him he’d be playing before leaving the ice. Evason expects Foligno to be ready to return after the Wild’s four-day break for the holidays.

Goligoski played for the first time since Dec. 9. With no games until next week, the Wild decided to go with 11 forwards and seven defensemen so they could load up the ice times for Kirill Kaprizov, Mats Zuccarello, Matt Boldy and Joel Eriksson Ek, who scored a first-period breakaway goal. after Karlsson scored on San Jose’s first shot of the game in the first minute of play.

Karlsson, in video game mode, according to Sharks coach David Quinn, was dynamic all night. The Sharks played hard and with much more energy than the Wild, who played the night before in Anaheim. Because of curfews at both the Anaheim and San Jose airports, the Wild had to depart from Los Angeles and land in Oakland. They were also out of SAP Center within 25 minutes of the final horn Thursday night so they could beat the curfew and get back to blizzardy Minnesota.

“We tried to shake out the bus legs in the first,” said Dumba, who quickly added that the Wild can’t make excuses. “We had a pretty good push here before the break. Sucks we didn’t get this one, but get home, enjoy the holidays and put this one behind us.”

The Wild, who had given up six goals in the previous six games, suffered only their fourth defeat in the past 16 games. Eriksson Ek made it clear the Wild should be able to quickly put the loss behind them and get back to playing solid hockey after they start back up again.

Filip Gustavsson, who was riding his own six-game winning streak, was victimized by a team that atypically did not defend well and seemed sapped of much oomph.

“They played hard. They played with a lot of energy. They kept coming at us,” said Evason. “We didn’t have the sustained offensive zone push that we’ve had as of late. They put a lot of pressure on us.”

Dumba had a rough game on the back end. Kaprizov and Zuccarello, who scored in the waning seconds of the middle period, had tough games, had little time and space to make plays, overpassed persistently and sure looked like two players who could use the rest.

They’ll get it with the Wild not allowed to practice during the holiday hiatus like 31 other teams. They’re set to reconvene on Tuesday morning for a flight to Winnipeg to face the Jets that night.

“We expended a lot of energy,” Evason said, “but the best part is we can fatten up here over the break.”

(Photo of Jaycob Megna fighting Matt Dumba: Robert Edwards / USA Today)

.

Tags: