Playing their second game in as many nights, the Minnesota Wild came up against their Central Division foes, the St. Louis Blues, and were soundly beaten.
The Wild gave up two power play goals and a short-handed goal in a 5-1 loss to the Blues on Thursday. T.J. Oshie recorded the hat trick for the Blues.
Minnesota, also coming off a loss to the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday, is now only one point up on the Phoenix Coyotes for the top Wild Card spot in the Western Conference. The Wild have lost six times in the last eight games, and, based on the comments of defenseman Ryan Suter, the penalty kill and power play has something to do with that.
“Our special teams has been terrible. We have to figure it out or we’re not even going to make the playoffs,” Suter told Michael Russo of the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
Thursday’s game also featured a run-in between Minnesota’s goalie Darcy Kuemper allowed five goals on only 24 shots. He had a run-in with Blues’ forward David Backes.
More Backes on Kuemper: "Guys blowing them by him -- it's great to see." They got into it on Blues PP. pic.twitter.com/of08e0yBbE
— Chad Graff (@ChadGraff) March 28, 2014
Suter: "our special teams has been terrible. We have to figure it out or we're not even going to make the playoffs." #mnwild
— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) March 28, 2014