Wild give back the lead they earned, fall to Red Wings

The Red Wings couldn’t stop the Wild’s rally, and the Wild didn’t deny Detroit’s in the rematch.

After their thrilling comeback three days earlier, the Wild were overtaken 3-2 by the Red Wings on Tuesday at Xcel Energy Center, ending their three-game win streak.

“When we had the 2-0 lead,” Wild center Marco Rossi said, “you have to win that game.”

Detroit’s Simon Edvinsson split a 2-2 tie 11 minutes, 35 minutes into the third period with his second goal of the game after the Red Wings scored twice in the second to erase the Wild’s first-period head start and ultimately spoil a performance that stylistically suited the Wild.

Goaltender Filip Gustavsson made 13 saves off a season-low 16 shots in his first start after his stint at the 4 Nations Face-Off with Sweden was cut short because of illness, while Rossi extended his goal streak to three games and Jakub Lauko capitalized in his return from injury.

“It’s a disappointing loss from the sense that I thought we played a really solid game,” coach John Hynes said. “I thought we carried play.”

Just as Lauko rejoined the lineup, Joel Eriksson Ek was shelved because of a lower-body injury that’ll sideline him week to week — another challenge for a team still missing leading scorer Kirill Kaprizov as he recovers from surgery; veteran Ryan Hartman has three games left on his recently reduced suspension.

“You hope he’s gonna recover well and do OK,” Jake Middleton said of Eriksson Ek. “He’s the engine that kind of drives our team. Offensive, defensive, he gets thrown out in every situation. So, he’s absolutely a tough guy to replace.”

The Wild had no trouble early gaining an edge over Detroit.

Rossi connected on the power play at 7:17 of the first period when he tapped his own rebound past former Wild goalie Cam Talbot, who totaled 22 saves.

“When you go to the net, good things happen,” said Rossi, whose 21st goal matched his career high from last season and counted as his 50th point.

Rossi’s three-game goal streak also tied a career high, while his seven game-opening goals trail only the nine by Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl and eight for Calgary’s Jonathan Huberdeau.

Matt Boldy’s assist on the play was his 30th, making him only the second player in Wild history to have three 30-assist seasons by age 23; Pierre-Marc Bouchard is the other. Boldy’s 51 points are one shy of Kaprizov’s team-high 52.

By 11:11, the Wild doubled their lead when Lauko redirected in a throw to the middle by linemate Devin Shore.

But that advantage for the Wild evaporated during a three-minute stretch in the second period, with the Red Wings overcoming a two-goal deficit like the Wild did Saturday in their 4-3 overtime win in their first game back from the two-week break.

“We need to be more tenacious in front of their net because obviously we see the pattern of the goals we scored, and we just didn’t stick with it,” Lauko said. “I think we need to be more hard in front of both nets and just stick with our game plan because it just drifted away a little bit in the second.”

Vladimir Tarasenko wired in a shot from the right side at 10:12 as Mats Zuccarello exited the penalty box after sitting for hooking. (Detroit, officially, went 0-for-1 on the power play, while the Wild were 1-for-2; Marcus Johansson was high-sticked in the second period, but the infraction went uncalled.)

Then at 13:12, Edvinsson uncorked a blistering one-timer from inside the blue line.

BOXSCORE: Red Wings 3, Wild 2

NHL standings

That set up a make-or-break third period, and the Wild applied more pressure initially before Edvinsson ended the stalemate with another sizzling shot off the right post and in.

“Second one I’m not happy with,” Gustavsson said, “and then the third they go ‘D’ to ‘D’ and go past our guy that tries to block it. They have a screen in front, and I pick it up late.”

The goal was one of only three pucks the Red Wings threw on net in the third; the Wild had 10 shots.

“We were banging on a closed door,” Lauko said.

Like in their victory Saturday, the Wild pulled their goaltender for an extra attacker — that’s when Marcus Foligno delivered the equalizer to extend the action to overtime, where Rossi netted the game-winner.

But the Wild didn’t have the same execution Tuesday.

“I don’t think we played bad today,” Gustavsson said. “Games right now get tight at this time of year, and sometimes one bad goal like that can determine the game.”