Third-period lead melts away for Wild in loss to Coyotes

ST. PAUL -- For the second time in a week, the Wild learned a tough lesson about taking its foot off the gas.
This time it couldn't salvage a victory, however.
Six days after surrendering a three-goal, third period lead in an eventual 6-4 win against the Ottawa Senators, the Wild watched a two-goal, final period lead wither away against the Arizona Coyotes in a 4-3 loss on Tuesday at Xcel Energy Center.

"It's tough. I think we got a little comfortable and stopped playing and they took it to us," said Wild defenseman Jared Spurgeon. "There's a reason why the game is 60 minutes, and you have to play the full 60."
One period from perhaps its most dominant 20-minute period all season, the Wild couldn't find a way to stop the bleeding following a goal by Brainerd native Josh Archibald 3:07 into the third.

Zach Parise and Jason Zucker tallied second-period goals to give the Wild a 3-1 lead headed to the third. So good was Minnesota, it scored more goals (two) than it had shots on goal against (one) for the entire second period.

"You always want a second period like that. We just gotta mature as a group," Spurgeon said. "We gotta be able to come out for the third and play the same way we did in the second. It just felt like our emotion was gone, and they just took it to us."
Facing a team that had lost four consecutive games, perhaps the Wild assumed it would be easy in the third. Unfortunately, it found out the hard way that it wouldn't.
"It probably got them into overconfidence if anything. They said it's going to be a 6-1 game. There's a young goalie who's never played before or played one period before and coming in we've got a 3-1 lead, we're just going to take this," said Wild coach Bruce Boudreau. "It's the NHL, you can't sit back and you can't play like that or you're going to get beat every single time."
With Coyotes netminder Antti Raanta unavailable in the third because of a lower-body injury, the Wild was unable to test rookie Adin Hill. Minnesota mustered just five shots on Hill over the final period, with four of those coming in one late push for the tying goal.

"I think they got that goal in the third and they looked around and said, 'Holy crap, we're in the game, let's win it,'" Boudreau said. "So they picked it up, they were playing for their young goalie, and we stood around and did nothing."
To have it happen once on home ice is frustrating, but players after the game were downright angry it had -- for the second time in six days -- made life far more difficult than it needed to be.
"We keep playing down to the level of competition that comes into this building. It's getting to be embarrassing to set yourself up really good for the third and they have no momentum and yet we just seem like it's joke and let teams come back in. That's on us," said Wild forward Marcus Foligno. "That's a mental thing here. It's not that we're a bad hockey team. We're a good hockey team. We've got to play great though."
Minnesota now begins a stretch of games against some of the NHL's best teams, including three of four versus teams at or near the top of their divisions. Just one of its next five games will be played on home ice (Saturday against Toronto), with another road swing through Western Canada looming next week.
Minnesota will practice at TRIA Rink at Treasure Island Center on Wednesday before a mid-day flight to Columbus and a matchup with the Blue Jackets on Thursday.
Before then, the Wild hopes to find a cure for what ails it in defending third-period leads.
"We'll have to get back to practice tomorrow and try to figure out a way to be better in the third periods. Hopefully we can bring it next game," said Wild forward Eric Fehr. "We'll have to look at the tape a little bit and see what we did and what they did to get their scoring chances. That's a game we have to have at home, no doubt."
Related:
Postgame Hat Trick: Coyotes 4, Wild 3