The Minnesota Wild’s slump continued on Sunday afternoon as Jason Robertson recorded a hat trick in a 6-3 loss to the Dallas Stars.
The Wild got on the scoreboard when Nico Sturm scored on a breakaway goal midway through the first period. But when the Wild went on the penalty kill later in the first, one of their biggest troubles resurfaced.
Dallas scored after a scrum in front of the net deflected off Joe Pavelski. With the game tied at 1, Dean Evason challenged the play for goaltender interference but the goal was upheld.
The failed challenge kept the Wild’s penalty kill unit on the ice, which had registered a 59 percent kill rate in its last nine games coming into the game. Those struggles continued when Jason Robertson scored on the ensuing power play to make it a 2-1 game.
This chain of events wound up being the turning point of the afternoon. Dallas tacked onto its lead when Coon Rapids native Riley Tufte scored his first career goal to make it 3-1 and Robertson’s second goal of the afternoon chased Kaapo Kahkonen.
The Wild didn’t show any signs of life until Evason pulled Cam Talbot midway through the third period. Kirill Kaprizov scored twice to make things interesting but Jamie Benn added an empty-net goal and Robertson completed the hat trick to hand Minnesota another disappointing loss.
The Wild have now lost eight of their past 12 games since returning from the All-Star break. They’ll look to turn things around when they host the New York Rangers on Tuesday night.
