Wild reminded quickly that nothing will come easy against Canucks

It didn't take long for the Vancouver Canucks to send a message in Game 2 of a best-of-5 qualifying round series against the Wild.
About 24 seconds to be exact.
Tanner Pearson's goal on the first shift of the game provided the Canucks with more offense than they had in all of Game 1 and provided Minnesota with a sudden reminder that it will have to overcome some adversity if it wants to advance to the Round of 16.

"Best-of-5, best-of-7, that's how playoffs go. You go from feeling great after Game 1 after a pretty complete game by us, feeling good with a day off and all of the sudden, you come back and now it's 1-1," said Wild forward Zach Parise, who played in his 99th postseason game on Tuesday. "Those are the rollercoasters of playoffs. Both teams regroup, you see what has been working, where we can get better but playoffs are emotional no matter what and sometimes, win or loss, you have to turn the page and move on to the next game, and that's what we're gonna be doing. Like I said, see things why we didn't get in the offensive zone as much, why we didn't have o-zone time as much as we'd like, and work on that and just get better at that as the series goes on."
So disciplined in Game 1, taking just two penalties and allowing an explosive Vancouver power play just a single power play, the Wild was unable to follow that roadmap on Tuesday. Minnesota surrendered seven power plays to Vancouver, and although it kept the Canucks off the board until its sixth chance with the man advantage, it never allowed the Wild to get into the same kind of flow as the first game.
In that one, the Wild was able to evenly roll four lines and six defensemen.
Tuesday, Minnesota was stuck in a rut, unable to build any kind of consistent momentum, unable to use its depth to its advantage and unable to get anything whatsoever going at 5-on-5.
"Way too many penalties by us and our power play wasn't very good," said Wild coach Dean Evason. "They did a real good job, but clearly we have to stay out of the penalty box. On their power play, they had a lot of really good touches tonight, a lot of zone time. [It] took a lot out of our group.
"I wouldn't say it's discipline, but I'd say there was a lot that were avoidable. A lot were stick penalties where we were reaching from behind instead of moving our legs and checking with our legs and trippings and slashings. And those are very avoidable penalties. It's not like we were running around punching guys in the face and what have you, but, we can avoid some of those penalties obviously that we took tonight."

Luke Kunin scored in the first period with the Wild playing shorthanded. Kevin Fiala would score a pair of late goals with Alex Stalock on the bench for the extra attacker.

"I think it's tough for guys who aren't on the special teams to get rolling and get in the feel of the game," Kunin said. "We know they are going to call penalties on both ends. We have to capitalize when we get the power plays. We have to kill it and take the momentum away from them when they are on the power play."
Brad Hunt's Hail Mary shot from center ice at the final horn was, rather clumsily, stopped by Jacob Markstrom, but stopped nonetheless in a 4-3 game where the final score made the game seem closer than it actually was.

The best-of-5 series between the Wild and Canucks is now tied at 1-1, with a pivotol Game 3 set for Thursday afternoon.
"I thought they played a much better game tonight. They had a little more jump to their step and it felt like we didn't have the puck as much," Parise said. "I think there's no secret what makes us a good team is being on the forecheck and spending long shifts in the offensive zone. It didn't seem like we had that. It felt like we got our first guy in there pretty quick and there was too much spacing between our first forechecker and our second guy. It just felt like they could make one pass and they were coming up the ice."
Wild fans looking for good news can find it in Fiala, who scored two absolute beauties late and now has three goals in the first two games of the series.
If Minnesota is to advance in this series, Fiala will need to continue being front and center, as he has been so far.
Evason said he believes that will give the Wild something to build on for Game 3.
"It showed that our group did not quit," Evason said. "We were still trying to do the right things. We were competing off of those faceoffs to get the puck to the net. For sure, we'll build off of everything we can possibly build off."
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