The Minnesota Wild could easily have two wins, but instead sit winless with just a pair of points.
Saturday, the Anaheim Ducks got a goal from Mathieu Perreault with 4.9 seconds remaining in overtime for a 4-3 win at the Xcel Energy Center.
The Wild once again outshot and outplayed their opponent and lost in the extra session.
"I think we have to learn from it," Zach Parise said about not letting the disappoint outcomes frustrate the team. "(We made) correctable mistakes that we cannot allow to happen."
The Ducks jumped on the Wild early and built a 2-0 lead less than six minutes into the game.
"We knew they were going to come out strong," Marco Scandella said. "We didn't respond early enough."
The Wild (0-0-2) responded with Parise scoring the first of two goals at the 11:52 mark of the period to cut the deficit in half. He later tied the game at 3-3 one minute and 15 seconds into the third period. Both goals came with him driving the net. The first came off behind the net feed from Mikko Koivu on the power play and the second on a rebound off a shot by Keith Ballard.
Jason Pominville added a power play goal of his own in the third to get the Wild back to within one near the midway mark of the second period. All three Wild goals were scored the team's top line.
"We should have had more," Parise said about the top lines production in the game. "We had some chances. We needed to get a couple more. We expect ourselves to do that.
"Of course it's nice to get the first ones of the year, but when you look back on it, there were chances that we missed that could have one us the game."
The Ducks (1-1-0) scored their last goal of regulation one minute and 19 seconds into the second period, but were thoroughly outplayed the rest of regulation.
The Ducks got their push back in overtime before breaking through with seconds before the horn.
The Wild lost second line center Charlie Coyle to a lower body injury and had to mix and match lines throughout the second half of the game.
Three Stars
No. 3 – Francois Beauchemin. The Ducks defenseman recorded two assists.
No. 2 – Mathieu Perreault. The Ducks forward scored a goal and added an assist.
No. 1 – Zach Parise. The Wild forward recorded two goals.
Boxscore
Anaheim.…….2 1 0 1 – 4
Minnesota……1 1 1 0 – 3
First Period – 1, Anaheim, Koivu 1 (Beauchemin, Cogliano), 1:40. 2, Anaheim, Bonino 1 (Perry, Getzlaf), 5:43 (pp). 3, Minnesota, Parise 1 (Koivu, Suter), 11:52 (pp). Penalties – Beleskey, ANA, major (fighting), 3:17; Konopka, MIN, major (fighting), 3:17; Granlund, MIN (hooking), 3:55; Allen, ANA (elbowing), 10:54.
Second Period – 4, Anaheim, Silfverberg 2 (Perreault, Penner), 1:19. 5, Minnesota, Pominville 1 (unassisted), 8:28 (pp). Penalties – Fistric, ANA (high sticking), 8:23; Beauchemin, ANA (tripping), 12:23; Suter, MIN (slashing), 18:41.
Third Period – 6, Minnesota, Parise 2 (Ballard, Brodin), 1:15. Penalties – Bonino, ANA (delay of game - puck over glass), 5:23; Mitchell, MIN (slashing), 7:52.
Overtime – 7, Anaheim, Perreault 1 (Beauchemin, Fowler), 4:55. Penalties – None.
Shots on goal – Anaheim 10-8-6-6 30. Minnesota 8-17-6-2 33.
Goalies – Anaheim, Hiller (30-33). Minnesota, Backstrom (26-30). A – 18,213. Referees – Justin St. Pierre, Brad Meier. Linesmen – Thor Nelson, Mark Wheler.
