The Wild lost to the Vegas Golden Knights 4-0 in Game 4 of it’s First Round series Saturday night at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.
Wild.com’s Dan Myers gives three takeaways from the game in the latest edition of the Postgame Hat Trick, powered by Xcel Energy:
1. A game of turning points.
There were a number of critical moments on Saturday night, and at each turn, the Wild simply came up just a little bit short.
The first came midway through the first period when Nicolas Roy scored off the rush to give Vegas a 1-0 lead. On the very next shift, Minnesota tied the game on a goal by Joel Eriksson Ek.
But as the Knights did in Game 3, coach Pete DeBoer challenged the goal, this time on the grounds of goaltender interference.
And like in Game 3, the challenge paid off, as Ek’s goal was wiped away. Instead of a tied game at intermission, Vegas took a one-goal advantage into the second.
Alex Tuch scored his third goal of the series 9:08 into the second, which doubled the Knights lead and completely changed status quo.
The next big turning point came just a few minutes later, when Knights defenseman Zach Whitecloud hit Zach Parise up high and opened up a cut, putting the Wild on a four-minute power play.
Instead of cutting into the advantage, however, the Wild saw Vegas extend it to 3-0 on Mark Stone’s breakaway goal that gave the Knights a three-goal lead into the second intermission.
It was a hole that, against a goaltender like Marc-Andre Fleury, proved to be too difficult to overcome.
2. First to three.
For the first time this season, the Wild has lost three consecutive games.
It comes at the most unfortunate of times, as four periods into this series, Minnesota seemed in position to be in firm control, coming off an overtime victory in Game 1 and a dominant first period in Game 2 that just didn’t yield enough in the way of offensive support.
The Wild was one of three teams in the NHL that hadn’t lost three-straight games all season (Pittsburgh, Boston) but will now need three-straight wins in order to keep its season alive.
For the record, Minnesota won three consecutive games on six separate occasions during the regular season. It won’t be easy, but it’s not out of the realm.
3. Back from the brink?
It’s no picnic digging out from under a 3-1 series deficit, but it has become significantly more common than it used to be.
Consider: From 1942 through 2000, teams came back from a 3-1 deficit to win the series just 16 times in nearly 60 years.
Since the Wild entered the League in 2000-01 – 20 years ago – that same feat has been accomplished 13 times.
And each of these teams has some history regarding 3-1 leads/deficits.
Minnesota dug out from two of them during its run to the Western Conference Finals in 2003, to this day, the only team in NHL history to come back from two 3-1 series deficits in a single postseason.
On the flip side, Vegas was the last team to surrender a 3-1 series lead, dropping three consecutive games to the San Jose Sharks during the 2019 Playoffs, including a 3-0 lead in the third period of Game 7 in a 5-4 overtime loss.
Again, it’s not easy. But it’s not unprecedented.