Postgame Hat Trick: Golden Knights 3, Wild 2

Wild.com's Dan Myers gives three takeaways from the Wild's 3-2 loss against the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Thursday night:

1. What a difference 24 hours makes
One night after everything it touched turned to gold in Arizona, the Wild struggled at times against a severely shorthanded Golden Knights club that was without four of its best forwards, one of its defensemen and started its backup netminder.
The opening 20 minutes set the tone, as the Wild looked like a club that was playing the second of back-to-back games.
Paul Cotter and Jonas Rondbjerg scored their first NHL goals 10 minutes apart as Vegas led by two goals after one period, outshooting the Wild 16-5 in the process.
If not for a handful of grade-A saves by Cam Talbot, it might have been worse.

"It was a tough hill to climb, getting down those two goals," said Wild coach Dean Evason. "But we can't keep doing that, obviously. It'll bite us like it did tonight."
Still, Minnesota was one goal away from being right back in the hockey game, and it had a golden opportunity in the second, when Vegas took three penalties in the span of 2:08, giving the Wild a lengthy 5-on-3 in the process.
After scoring twice on the power play in Arizona on Wednesday, including one on a 5-on-3 chance, the Wild simply couldn't get anything going on Thursday night, with Joel Eriksson Ek's point-blank chance in the dying moments of the two-man advantage serving as the club's best scoring chance.
The power plays did give the Wild a spark from a time of possession standpoint, as Minnesota looked like it was slowly building its game as the period went on.
But with only seconds remaining in the period, an untimely turnover in the neutral zone turned into an odd-man rush the other way and Jonathan Marchessault finished off a pass from Reilly Smith for a 3-zip lead with just seven seconds left in the second.
"I just feel like I let the boys down tonight," said Wild defenseman Matt Dumba. "Just a ... bad play. Yeah, it sucks. It sucks. Feels like it comes down to one play, the boys worked so hard in the third to kind of pull us out of that. Just fell short.
"I've gotta be better. That starts versus Seattle."
Fellow defenseman Jared Spurgeon was quick to defend his teammate.
"I think he knows we all support him. Stuff like that happens," Spurgeon said. "Each one of us has those games where ... you make a play and it goes the other way. We support him, wholeheartedly."
2. The third brings life
Still, Minnesota had a chance in the third, thanks to an early goal by the Wild captain, who scored with a nasty little wrister under the crossbar just 1:20 into the frame.
Spurgeon's goal was set up by a nifty little spinning backhand feed by Kaprizov, which sprung Spurgeon down the right-wing side.

The goal was Spurgeon's third of the season and his sixth point in the past five games.
"We thought in the third period when we started getting our legs and jumping on their cycles, that's when we broke their plays up and started getting our offense going," Spurgeon said.
Minnesota kept pushing and got back within one with plenty of time remaining when Ryan Hartman channeled his inner Darby Hendrickson, ripping a one timer on one knee from the right circle, making it a 3-2 hockey game.

That would be as close as the Wild got, however, despite a number of quality opportunities down the stretch.
"We felt that, the end of the second, or the middle of the second, we got our legs were coming back to us and we felt a little bit more confident," said Wild forward Marcus Foligno. "I think in the third, we kept doing what we were doing. Obviously a little bit more desperation, but I think that we had our legs, but our mindset was just a lot better.
"Just our start was not good. Two goals right away in the first period and that stings."
3. Power outage
The difference in the game for the Wild was a power play that went 0-for-6 on the night, including nearly 100 seconds of 5-on-3 in the second period.
It was the difference in the game.
"Our power play obviously has to score," Evason said. "But it took us away from our 5-on-5 game. We were rolling with the lines and we just kept going with it and gained that momentum. That's how we have to play the game.
"But we also have to figure out that when that happens, we have to stay in hockey games and/or clearly, score on the power play."

Minnesota had nearly four consecutive minutes of power-play time that period, and was awarded another man advantage in the final minute of regulation when Marchessault was called for tripping with 1:03 left in regulation.
Evason brought Talbot to the bench for the extra attacker, giving the Wild yet another extended stretch with a two-man advantage, but the Knights did a nice job of clogging shooting lanes and making life difficult for Minnesota, which never really got a sniff over the final 63 seconds.
"We're trying to score, it just didn't happen," Dumba said of the team's struggles on the power play. "Guys are trying their best, but that's just how it goes some nights."

Loose pucks

• Jon Merrill had an assist in his return to Vegas and has three helpers on the trip so far
• Dmitry Kulikov has a point in three consecutive games and four points in his past five overall
• Talbot made 32 saves in the contest
• Brossoit finished with 24 saves on 26 shots
• Cotter's first career goal came in just his second NHL game
• Brett Howden, Brayden McNabb and Nic Hague also had assists for the Golden Knights
• Vegas defenseman Alec Martinez left the game in the first period after taking a skate blade to the face, requiring more than 50 stitches

Dan's three stars

1. Jonas Rondbjerg
   2. Laurent Brossoit
   3. Ryan Hartman

HIghlights