Waking up with the flu would be less gut-wrenching the way the Wild lost to Florida Monday night.
Playing the third game of a season-long seven-game homestand, the Wild and Panthers were tied 4-4 when Florida controlled the puck into the offensive zone, just missing on a couple of scoring chances before Noel Acciari tipped in the game-winning goal off a shot from Mark Pysyk with 5.6 to play in the third period.
“It’s just a crazy goal,” said coach Bruce Boudreau.”
“Pretty disheartening,” said forward Zach Parise, via Wild.com. “From getting ourselves back into the driver’s seat and feeling like a few more shifts and we had to close it out to not getting a point out of it, that’s a tough one right now where we are. That’s a tough one to take.”
Minnesota rallied from three one-goal deficits, the third coming in the third period to tie the score 3-3 on a rebound goal by Parise, his fifth goal in the past four games and 19th of the season.
Luke Kunin’s second goal of the night (his first was shorthanded) put Minnesota up 4-3 with 12:54 to play, but Florida found the answer with 4:08 left in the game, paving the way for the stomach-punch of a finish.
With 33 games remaining, the Wild (50 points) are seven points out of a wild-card spot with Winnipeg (54 points), Chicago (54 points) and Nashville (51 points) also fighting for those coveted playoff spots, which are currently held by Vegas and Arizona, both of whom have 57 points.
