Wild's objective with season on brink: win one, and take it from there

ST. PAUL -- The circumstances were different, but unfortunately for the Wild, the outcome yielded the same result.
Faced with some early adversity in the form of an overturned goal, Minnesota just couldn't overcome it on Saturday in a 4-0 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights in Game 4. The Knights now lead the best-of-7 series 3-1, forcing the Wild to win each of the next three games or see its season come to a close.
"That was a huge turning point," said Wild defenseman Ian Cole. "That was a huge game, either makes the series 2-2 or makes it 3-1. Obviously we didn't get it done, and that's very unfortunate."

In Game 3, Joel Eriksson Ek scored what appeared to be his second goal of the game, and one that would have given the Wild a 3-0 lead in a dominant first period.
But Vegas coach Pete DeBoer challenged the goal for offsides ... and prevailed, reducing the Wild's lead to 2-0, a deficit the Knights would eventually overcome with a dominant second and third period.
On Saturday night, Vegas scored first but saw, perhaps ironically, Eriksson Ek tied the game on the very next shift with a pretty short-side shot that got by a screened Marc-Andre Fleury.
Once again, DeBoer challenged, this time for goaltender interference.
Once again, he prevailed.
And once again, the Wild was on the short end of an apparent goal that could have completely swung momentum, both in the game and in this series.

"Definitely feel like a shot in the foot," said Wild forward Jordan Greenway. "It's unfortunate, but I think we need to find a better way to respond when those things happen. We definitely lost some momentum, but we gotta find a way to get back to it."
Of course, "puck luck" is a term that can be overused this time of year. But after its stroke of good fortune in overtime of Game 1, when Eriksson Ek's game-winning goal bounced through the legs of Vegas goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, it seems as though every break, and every potential turning point has gone against Minnesota.
Helpful bounces off the end wall in both Games 2 and 3 led directly to Vegas goals. The overturned goals that cost Minnesota two goals. Matt Dumba losing an edge on Saturday night, which led to a Mark Stone breakaway goal, one that ended up being more like a back-breaking goal.
"Especially on their goals tonight, I think we created some puck luck for them," Greenway said. "We had some costly turnovers, bad changes, stuff like that and that can catch up with you. On the flip side, we gotta find chances to take advantage of situations when they're going in our favor."
Wild forward Marcus Foligno concurred.
"I think we gave them a lot [on Thursday] and the things we gave them today were in the back of our net," Foligno said. "There's a lot better things than last game, but it's still just not good enough. In this series, you just got to forget about it and worry about the next game.
"Maybe having that desperation in our game, just that simplicity playing with, going into Vegas, maybe that's what we need. It tough to obviously drop two since we've been so good at home but playoffs is playoffs and we just got to win one game."
Fleury's continued red-hot play has been perhaps the biggest key in this series, as the Wild have simply been unable to solve the veteran in any of the four games - save for the first 20 minutes of Game 3.
That's not to short-change the job done by Vegas in this series. Of course the Knights have done a good job of making their own luck, and capitalizing on its chances.
And there have been missed opportunities along the way for the Wild.
But every team needs at least a few good bounces along the way in order to make a deep run, and so far, Vegas has simply had more of them. A lot more.

"I actually thought we handled the no-goal call] extremely well," said Wild coach Dean Evason. "We talked a lot about the adversity of last game. I thought we handled it well as far as our emotions and what have you, but clearly, clearly it hurt. Momentum, excitement. It wasn't like we lost our composure after that, but it did hurt us obviously not to be tied 1-1."
Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of this series for the Wild is that it's not difficult to imagine a scenario where it could be the team up 3-1.
A dominant performance in the first period of Game 2 yielded no offense, but the Wild would eventually score the game's first goal. Vegas would come back and win.
Minnesota led 2-0 in Game 3 on home ice, and Vegas came back to win.
Game 4 was the first contest in this series where the Wild hasn't tasted a lead, but Minnesota did outshoot the Knights in every period, including 24-9 margin over the final 40 minutes and a 35-18 advantage for the game.
It's the most lopsided shots advantage the Wild has had in any of the four games.
"This series is not over by any means," Greenway said. "Winning the next game is obviously huge for us and that changes things a lot, especially coming home after that. We just gotta look on, forget about this one, learn from the mistakes we made and go after them next game."
With such a steep hill to climb, Cole said it's crucial the Wild simply approach Game 5 from one-game perspective.
Win that, gain some momentum, come home and see what happens.
It's a different club, but the most recent team to blow a 3-1 series lead was ... the Golden Knights, against the San Jose Sharks in the 2019 playoffs.
"What we have to do now is go to Vegas and win one hockey game," Cole said. "We just have to turn into one game. There's one hockey game we have to win. It's do-or-die, an absolute must-win, obviously. But we gotta win one hockey game. That's all we can worry about at this point."
**Related:**
[Postgame Hat Trick: Golden Knights 4, Wild 0