"I don't know what the word is that I want to use, but it's embarrassing," said Wild coach Bruce Boudreau. "It's a mindset that they have to [have]. We can't be thinking scoring every time we're out there. Sometimes, we're thinking defending. We have to think defend, especially when you have a lead.
"It's been addressed yesterday, it's been addressed today about leads in the third period, it's been addressed every day this week as a matter of fact."
2. Landon Ferraro was one of four players recalled from Iowa on Friday. Less than 24 hours later, playing in his first career game with Minnesota, Ferraro scored his first goal with the club.
Wild fans in the eastern endzone of Xcel Energy Center should get credited with the first assist. Ferraro cruised into the offensive zone and rifled a snap shot in the direction of Blue Jackets goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky. The netminder made the initial stop, but the puck leaked ever so slowly behind him, laying still in the blue paint.
While players on both teams had assumed the rubber was somewhere in Bobrovsky's pads and waited for a whistle, the fans behind the net alerted the guys in green jerseys that the puck was in fact loose.
"It was 100 percent [the fans]," Ferraro said. "I figured he already had it. It hit him right in the stomach and it somehow squeaked through. Just hearing them, I knew it had to be on the other side. I just tried to lay out for it and get as much of it as I could."
Like any good basketball player, Ferraro followed his shot and was rewarded at the goal mouth, beating a pair of Blue Jackets defensemen and jamming the loose puck past Bobrovsky.
For Ferraro, who sat out much of last season while rehabbing a knee injury, the goal served as a reward for a year's worth of hard work to get back. It was his seventh career NHL goal and first since March 1, 2016, when he was a member of the Boston Bruins.
"It's really nice," Ferraro said. "I was hoping to one in the first couple games down in Iowa just to kind of get that feeling again. To have your first one in almost a year is something that's pretty exciting."
Zack Mitchell, another Friday call-up, earned his first NHL point with the lone assist on the goal.
3. Speaking of firsts, Ennis scored his first goal as a member of the Wild, then doubled his pleasure with a power-play tally early in the third.
Both goals were of the power play variety, and his first one came thanks to a nice cross-rink pass from his best pal, Wild defenseman Jared Spurgeon.
"It was a pretty special moment for us," Ennis said. "It's kind of a dream come true to play in the NHL with Jared, and then for him to set me up on my first goal with Minnesota, it's something I'll remember for the rest of my life."
After scoring the goal, Spurgeon threw his hands in the air and raced toward his buddy, before doubling back to retrieve the puck from the goal mouth.
