Wild Address Special Team Struggles Ahead Of Game 5 At Home
ST. PAUL, Minn. (WCCO) -- The Minnesota Wild's loss Sunday evens the series with the Blues at two games apiece. They return home for game five Tuesday.
Kevin Fiala's second double minor for high sticking this series put the Wild on an extended penalty kill in Sunday's first period.
"Not a lot of space out there," Fiala said.
But Minnesota killed it while Marc-Andre Fleury faced a barrage of shots.
"Unfortunate penalties. The two high sticking penalties were accidental. Having said that, we have to keep our sticks on the ice and we shouldn't put ourselves in that position. But it really disrupted our game," said head coach Dean Evason.
The Wild were again shut on their power play, going 0-4, generating some chances, but with nothing to show for it.
"Yeah, so be it. This is a game we're going to put behind us," said defenseman Matt Dumba.
Evason acknowledged the season-long special teams woes after game one, when they allowed two-man advantage tallies and went 0-6 on their own. Tides seemed to turn in game two when the Wild lit the lamp twice in the first period with the extra attacker. But that was it. Overall, Minnesota is 2-17 this series on the power play.
"I think we still in some of them created some momentum and that's the most important part," said center Frederick Gaudreau. "Of course we wanna get some goals in. But like I said, there was opportunities there, I feel like."
St. Louis has scored at least one power play goal in each game of this series. Now it's back home, to un-even the series.
"We're looking forward to playing in front of our crowd again and being jacked and doing all the right things," Evason said.
