Needing yet another OT hero, Wild comes up just short

Richard Park. Andrew Brunette. Jason Zucker. Nino Niederreiter.
The Wild has a long history of overtime heroes in postseason history, and facing elimination on Friday night against the Vancouver Canucks, Minnesota needed another in order to avoid elimination.
Unfortunately, overtime lasted just 11 seconds as Christopher Tanev's shot from the point reached the net and ended the Wild's season suddenly, 5-4 at Rogers Place in Edmonton.

Minnesota looked like it was destined for better things, as it led on three different occasions in the game, including a two-goal lead in the second period.
But a goal with under six minutes to play in regulation by Bo Horvat knotted the game for a fourth time, and in the extra session, the Wild barely had time to blink before it was giving fist bumps in the traditional post-series handshake line.

"It's tough to take in right now," said Wild defenseman Jared Spurgeon, who scored a pair of goals in the series. "It's pretty quick to get going and then all of a sudden, it's done. We put in a lot of work and to end that quickly, definitely stings."
The current state of affairs around the world only adds to that uncertainty.
Normally, a season ends, the offseason begins and eventually, about four months down the road, training camp starts and fresh season begins anew.
Everyone certainly hopes that's the case, and that the Wild will open the 2020-21 season as planned in early December. But if bubble life in Edmonton has proven anything, it's that absolutely nothing is like it used to be in the NHL.
For players that are creatures of habit and operate with Rolex-like precision, nobody really knows what's next. And in the disappointment of a missed opportunity, sometimes it's that glimmer of hope for the future that helps the hurt go away.

"It's gonna sting for a while," Spurgeon said. "You don't really know what's ahead for this next season, but I'm sure when it does start, we'll have this in the back of our mind and want to get off to a good start so that we're in a better position going forward."
That's especially true for a veteran like Zach Parise, who turned 36 years old the second day inside the bubble. In a playoffs where there has been so much uncertainty, where an 11 seed and two 12 seeds had already advanced to the first round, it seemed like a missed opportunity to have a crack at the ever-elusive Stanley Cup.
"It was pretty disheartening for everyone," Parise said. "Just the roller coaster of playoffs from Game 1, winning that game, and then all of a sudden, you find yourself trailing 2-1. Then again, leads tonight that we had until late in the game and they tie up. To lose 11 seconds in overtime, it was pretty shocking for everybody.
"Any time your season ends just like that, it's ... I don't know the word for it. It's not an enjoyable moment."

The immediate aftermath of Game 4 left the Wild asking how things went downhill so quickly. Joel Eriksson Ek's goal 5:39 into the second period gave Minnesota a 3-1 lead, and considering its past and the way it shut down the Canucks in Game 1 after building a two-goal lead, it seemed like another late-night game on Sunday was in the offing.
But a flukey goal by Brandon Sutter, a penalty on Minnesota, then a power-play goal by Quinn Hughes -- all of which came just 84 seconds apart -- tied the game at 3-3.

It looked like the game would go to the third that way, but Nico Sturm's first NHL goal in the final minute of the second again boosted the Wild as it sat just 20 minutes away from a Game 5.
It got even closer than that, watching more than 14 minutes elapse in the third period before Horvat's quick tying marker right on the doorstep meant overtime, where so many of the best moments in Wild history have occurred.

But it wasn't meant to be ... not this time.
"There's never anything intelligent you can say in those situations. We just said how proud we were of them, how we battled right from the first day of training camp and even obviously before the pause," Evason said. "Proud of how we conducted ourselves, how we prepared, how we came here and obviously gave everything we had.
"It's obviously a very disappointing end. Someone's obviously gotta lose in overtime, but to have it that sudden it was a bit of a shock with that first shot."
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