Well somebody had to lose … sadly it wasn’t the Blue Jackets. The Wild fell to Columbus 4-2 in St. Paul on Saturday night, Minnesota’s first loss since Dec. 1.
With the ‘L,’ the Wild’s franchise best 12-game winning streak comes to an end. But they were going up against a 2016 NHL juggernaut.
It’s the 15th straight win for the Blue Jackets. They need just two more victories to match the longest winning streak in NHL history.
The atmosphere at the Xcel was raucous to start, but it was taken out of the building when Cam Atkinson scored his 16th goal of the season in the 1st period, giving Columbus a 1-0 lead.
Eventually the Blue Jackets padded their lead to 3-0.
It wasn’t until the 2nd period that the Wild would get on the board, with Mikael Granlund netting a power-play goal. However, by the time the period ended it was 4-1 Columbus.
Twenty-four seconds into the final period, Jason Zucker scored to cut the lead in half.
Towards the end of the regulation Minnesota had a power play, a last chance effort to narrow the gap. But they weren’t able to convert, cementing the win for the Blue Jackets.
The Wild have a long break – they don’t play again until Thursday at San Jose.
