A brief third-period comeback for the Minnesota Wild didn’t leave head coach Mike Yeo satisfied with his team’s performance in Game 1 of their series against the Chicago Blackhawks.
The Wild manufactured a pair of goals in the third period to tie the game at two goals apiece, before Patrick Kane took over the game and helped the Blackhawks to a 5-2 win, and a 1-0 series lead on Friday. The Wild had the run of the play through the final two periods, outshooting Chicago 24-9 in that span.
But with the game tied, Kane went to work with some sheer brilliance, a beautiful backhand goal that turned out to be the winner. The Wild couldn’t regroup again, even if comebacks have been commonplace in these playoffs.
“It didn’t have the feel of a game we were going to win,” said Yeo, as per Chad Graff of the Pioneer Press. “I thought we had a handful of guys that were below average at best,” the coach added.
Yeo: We’re not happy with our game tonight. I felt we didn’t have everybody at the level we needed to be at, so we’ll rectify that…
— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) May 3, 2014