Despite a 15-4 advantage in shots on goal, Minnesota and Chicago went into the first intermission tied at 1-1.
Not ideal, but certainly not cataclysmic.
"You're hoping for more than a 1-1 game with some of the zone time and looks that we had," Staal said. "I think we could have done a better job of getting inside and on some of those loose pucks, but again, we're getting some of those chances, we're just not finishing right now, it's not going in."
Things went off the rails early in the second, however.
Brandon Saad scored just 23 seconds into the period and Kane added his second of the night 3 1/2 minutes later, and all of the sudden, the Wild was staring at a two-goal deficit.
"I was pretty upset. We gave them nothing in the first period and it shouldn't have been tied and it was," Boudreau said. "We knew they were going to come out better in the second period. We have to meet that push and we would've been fine."
For a team that scored just three goals in its previous four games before the holiday break, it proved to be too tough a mountain to climb.