Postgame Hat Trick: Predators 5, Wild 2

Wild.com's Dan Myers gives three takeaways from the Wild's 5-2 loss against the Nashville Predators at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul on Sunday night:

1. Playing with fire
It was only a matter of time for the Wild, who fell behind in each of the first four games of the regular season but managed to come back and earn victories.
It's simply not a sustainable way to continue winning hockey games. Case in point: Sunday's contest against the Preds.
Roman Josi scored on the power play 3:45 into the game to give the Predators a 1-0 lead. But unlike every other game, Minnesota was unable to draw even. Instead, it was another power play goal, this time by Ryan Johansen a couple of minutes later that made it 2-zip.

"We didn't have a lot of energy at the start there and give them credit, they took it to us right off the bat, got the two power-play goals as well and that's something we have to get better at is killing those penalties," said Wild captain Jared Spurgeon. "Every game so far there has been one going in. We haven't had the best of starts and we just gotta figure that out and then again, in the second I thought we started to get momentum, then one bad shift and it led to a goal against. We just gotta figure that out as well."
The Wild has allowed a power-play goal in each of the first five games, and no doubt that will be an emphasis in the coming days as Minnesota looks to get back on track.
Wild coach Dean Evason said puck possession on both special teams was a major issue on Sunday.
"Faceoffs were horrible. Both special teams, our faceoffs, we didn't start with the puck or get the clears that we wanted," Evason said. "They were able to keep pucks in and momentum obviously is gained from that."
Not quite seven minutes after Johansen's first goal of the night, he tallied a second off the rush to make it a 3-nothing hockey game.
"I think today was one of those nights where it's like the harder we tried it seemed like we were kind of spinning the wheels in the sand there," said Wild forward Nico Sturm. "It was like the harder we tried the less it seemed like it was going to go our way. We just didn't keep it simple enough, and just overall did a poor job playing in front of [goaltender] Kaapo [Kahkonen]."
Minnesota showed signs of life on a goal by Nick Bjugstad in the second period, cutting the deficit to 3-1, but Nashville answered shortly thereafter, re-establishing the Wild deficit at three.
Spurgeon admitted it was a tough way to learn that lesson. But it was probably one that was inevitable.
"I think we have a mature group in there and we know that," Spurgeon said. "We didn't really have a lot of energy in the first period and they took it to us."
2. May the fourth be with you
In an overall clunker of a game, perhaps the only highlight for the Wild was the play of its fourth line, which continues to be one of the top fourth units in the NHL
Every single night, no matter the score, the group of Brandon Duhaime, Sturm and Bjugstad keep creating scoring chances ... and capitalizing on those chances.
The key? Keeping things simple and using their size to get in on the forecheck.

"And I think that's what helped us at least tonight, I thought. We always mention just try to keep it simple and get the pucks in and go and forecheck and try to recover those pucks. That's what helps out our line is a straight forward game. As long as we keep doing that we'll have success," Sturm said. "In the first couple of games I thought we maybe would have deserved one already, but we did a good job so far of just not going away from our simple game even though we felt like we deserved one the first couple games. Just keep going. Yesterday we got the lucky bounce there on Dewey's goal, and today same thing. Just play the same way."
That consistency has made it easy for Evason to put that group over the boards in almost any situation.

"They just do the right things," Evason said. "They just work, finish their checks. They had plenty of energy. I don't know what the minutes were but we probably should have played them more."
Bjugstad's goal at 11:30 of the second gave the Wild some life. And although the Preds would eventually score the next two goals to push their lead to four, it was Sturm who gave Minnesota one final jolt, thanks to some nice work by Duhaime, who intercepted an outlet pass in the final seconds of the second period.

Duhaime gained control, skated in and fired a shot at Nashville goaltender Connor Ingram, one the goaltender stopped. But the puck trickled into the blue paint behind him and Sturm was there to clean up the mess, making it a 5-2 match with under three seconds to play in the second.
Minnesota's hole was too large at that point, but the overall play of the line continues to be something the Wild can build on.
For Duhaime, the assist was his first in the NHL. The goal was Sturm's first of the season after he potted 11 in 50 games last season.
3. Hitting the road
After a three-game homestand that saw the Wild win twice, Minnesota will now head to the road for its first extended trip of the season.
The Wild started the season on the West Coast, but had a quick back-to-back in SoCal before heading home for this homestand.
Included on the trip will be the Wild's first-ever visit to Seattle to play the NHL's newest franchise, the Seattle Kraken on Thursday night.
The three-game trip includes games in Vancouver on Tuesday and Colorado on Saturday.

The hope is that Minnesota can put this game behind it and use the trip to get back to basics.
"Our energy has been real good up to this point. For whatever reason, we had nothing there tonight," Evason said. "To put a finger on it, I don't know. They played last night too. We should have had more than we had tonight."

Loose pucks

• Jonas Brodin registered 3 blocked shots and now has 999 career blocked shots. With his next blocked shot he will become the second player in franchise history to record 1,000 blocked shots.
• Six of Bjugstad's seven goals in a Wild uniform have been scored at Xcel Energy Center.
• Kahkonen, making his first start of the season, made 24 saves on 29 shots.
• Nashville goaltender Connor Ingram made his NHL debut and stopped 33 of 35 shots faced.
• The Predators finished the game 2-for-6 on the power play.
• Minnesota was 0-for-5 on the man advantage

Dan's three stars

1. Ryan Johansen
   2. Connor Ingram
   3. Roman Josi

Highlights