The Minnesota Wild’s rough start to the season continued on Thursday night as they dropped their sixth game in their first seven to open the year with a 4-0 loss to the Montreal Canadiens.
Like the majority of their losses this season, the Wild played alright through two periods, but one big letdown led to another trip to the loss column.
In a more unique way, this loss for the Wild had a little extra to it as most of Montreal’s damage occurred in the final six minutes of the first period.
Victor Mete started the scoring with his first goal of the season from Nick Cousins at 14:37. The bleeding continued as Joel Armia scored a power play goal at 17:32 and Nick Suzuki put another past Alex Stalock at 19:23 to send the Wild into the locker room down 3-0.
After the quick onslaught, the Wild dragged through the second period while continuing to struggle to generate offense. Minnesota only mustered 17 shots on the evening and went 0-for-5 on the power play as Carey Price repeatedly shut the door when the Wild did get an offensive rush on net.
Although the game was well decided before the third period thanks to the Wild’s effort, Brendan Gallagher made things official with an unassisted goal at 12:40 to send the Wild back to St. Paul with just two points on a three-game Canadian road trip.
At this point, it’s hard to tell what exactly is wrong with the Wild and with the team mired in last place of the Central Division, the season could already be a lost cause just three weeks after it began.
Minnesota’s latest attempt to turn things around will come on Sunday at the Xcel Energy Center when they host the Canadiens for a 4 p.m. puck drop in St. Paul.
