Wild come up short in 3-2 loss to Canucks

Minnesota Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk, center, covers the net as Wild defenseman Jonas Brodin (25), of Sweden, and Vancouver Canucks left wing Alex Burrows, right, chase the puck during the second period of an NHL hockey game in St. Paul, Minn., Wednesday, November 25, 2015.

But things haven’t gone according to plan for either Horvat or the Canucks, who have struggled out of the gate with an 8-8-6 record, including a recent road trip that saw Vancouver go a dismal 1-4-2.

Vrbata gave the Canucks a 2-1 lead when he scored on the power play midway through the second period, this time converting a feed from Henrik Sedin.

The Minnesota Wild opened their busy Thanksgiving weekend with a 3-2 loss to Vancouver Wednesday night at Xcel Energy Center. However the Vancouver Canucks would have none of it. Radim Vrbata and his goal in the final minute of the first period – one mostly owned by the Wild – swung momentum for the Canucks and the Wild could never recover.

Said Yeo, “We’ve got to be better”. “We weren’t willing to work or play honest or create”.

Goaltending is key to any team’s success, and the Canucks might have to rely on it a bit more than most teams, which means they’ll need a fresh Ryan Miller with an effective Jacob Markstrom pushing him all through the season.

The ninth overall pick in 2013 came to training camp this September stronger and faster, hoping to play further up the lineup in a more prominent offensive role while also adding special teams’ duties to his portfolio. It tied the game 1-1 and seemed to turn the tide of the game. “I think that’s what killed us”, Coyle said.

Early in the third, with the Wild pressing for the tying goal, Koivu didn’t cover for a pinching Ryan Suter, Jared Spurgeon didn’t notice Jannik Hansen cherry-picking and Daniel Sedin found him for a breakaway goal and 3-1 Canucks lead.

The Canucks rebounded from a disastrous 1-4-2 road trip with a 6-3 home victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday before coming out flat 24 hours later in a disappointing 3-2 loss to the New Jersey Devils. “But after the first, we got away from it, tried long plays and were pretty sloppy for the most part”.

“I would be anxious if I thought we had played our best”, said Sedin. Every time you are out there, you’ve got a shift, you’re either showing them that you’re trying to do things the way we want to do them or you’re not, and it’s unbelievable what one does to the rest of the group. “If we can take that up one notch we will be fine”. “You’ve got family, you’ve got whatever, but we’re professionals and you’ve got to find a way to make sure you’re prepared mentally”. “Those timely goals were going in a year ago and they were making differences in games where we were winning those one-goal games”. The Wild got a late flurry in the final seconds but couldn’t get the tying goal. Like I said, I’d suspect we see Parise on the ice with the team for a real practice.

Puck drop is at 4 p.m. on Sportsnet.