The Wild twice held the lead against one of the Eastern Conference’s best teams but succumbed to a late goal Tuesday night in a 3-2 loss to the Hurricanes.
Carolina jumped all over the Wild early at the X, outshooting Minnesota 5-0 in the opening eight minutes. The Wild then peppered the Hurricanes net with five shots of their own over the following two minutes, culminating in the opening goal of the game by Connor Dewar, his eighth of the season.
The Hurricanes responded with a flurry of shots before finding the equalizer five minutes later off of Jordan Staal’s eighth goal of the season.
Jonas Brodin closed out a fast-paced first period with the Wild’s second goal with just 22 seconds left in the frame. The goal was Brodin’s fifth in his last nine games after scoring just one in his first 32 games of the season.
Minnesota answered being outshot by Carolina 13-7 in the first period by outshooting the Hurricanes 12-6 in the second. While the Wild may have had more offense in the second period, it was the Hurricanes who had the lone goal. With just 25 seconds left in the second period, Andrei Svechnikov equalized the game at two apiece.
At the 11-minute mark in the third period, Carolina’s Stefan Noesen deflected the puck off his face into the back of the net for the game-winning goal. The goal came just seconds after the Wild’s fourth worst power-play kill unit had killed off the Hurricanes’ second power play of the game.
Carolina entered the evening with the third-best power-play unit.
BLUE LINE BRODS 🚨#mnwild pic.twitter.com/7kuawAc3lE
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) February 28, 2024
The loss is a brutal one for the Wild as they now fall six points back of both the Predators and Kings in the wild-card race.
Next up for the Wild is a Thursday night trip to take on the Nashville Predators; puck drop is set for 7 p.m.
