Wild digs a hole and can't fall out in 4-1 loss to Sharks

Matt Dumba shook up the action, but the Sharks broke open the game.

That's the gist of a 50-second span that flipped a potential tie into a deeper deficit, one the Wild couldn't shake en route to a 4-1 loss on Tuesday night in front of 15,367 at Xcel Energy Center after returning home from a successful road trip.

"We didn't have enough in this hockey game, and they did," Wild coach Dean Evason said. "We need more from a lot of different players."

Down 2-1 but playing better in the second period, the Wild had a chance at the equalizer on the power play.

After Dumba crushed San Jose's Alexander Barabanov, catching Barabanov with his backside while Barabanov had his head down along the boards, Dumba was immediately accosted by Sharks veteran Tomas Hertl.

"It's a clean, Rob Blake-esq hit," Wild winger Marcus Foligno said.

Only Hertl was penalized on the play, for roughing, but the ensuing power play was short-lived. Center Joel Eriksson Ek, who scored earlier in the period, negated it with a tripping penalty after only 40 seconds.

And 10 seconds after that, while play was at 4-on-4, Erik Karlsson put San Jose up 3-1 on a booming slapshot that sailed by Wild goalie Cam Talbot at 9 minutes, 32 seconds.

"Took a lot of life out of us," Evason said.

The intensity between the two sides remained high; later in the second, Jonah Gadjovich followed Dumba up ice, like he was trying to bait Dumba into a fight. But Foligno stepped in, and the two traded punches.

"I wasn't going to fight that guy," Dumba said. "I don't even think Moose has to fight him at that point."

Instead of authoring another third-period comeback that have happened so often this season, the Wild fell further behind on a one-timer from Hertl near the goal line at 9:25.

This flat finish came after a slow start, as the Wild reinforced the NHL's quirky phenomenon that a team sags in its first home game after a road trip — in this case, a 2-1 trek through Arizona, Vegas and Seattle last week.

BOXSCORE: San Jose 4, Wild 1

Twice in the first period the Wild pulled itself offside, and early in the second, Talbot had a dump-in bounce off him and forced him to make a clutch stop out of position.

By then, the Wild was already trailing the Sharks 2-0.

"You don't want to make excuses, but you come off a tough road trip so you gotta be smart," Foligno said. "There's always that game when you come back off the west swing, that's kind of been a thing in this league. Again, not making excuses, but you can play through that by playing smartly and we didn't do that in the first period and it cost us."

Mario Ferraro opened the scoring at 5:55 of the first period when he directed in a Logan Couture feed. Then, with 44 seconds left in the first, Timo Meier pounced on a rebound to double San Jose's lead.

"We left some guys open and not really pushing guys up the wall, just looked a little bit sluggish," Foligno said.

In the second the Wild improved, with Eriksson Ek unleashing a five-hole shot past goalie James Reimer at 5:25. And although the team was still trailing when Dumba lined up Barabanov, it seemed poised for a breakthrough — especially with a power play on deck.

But the Wild couldn't capitalize, and the Sharks recalibrated on Karlsson's goal.

The Wild had one other power play, in the third period, but blanked on that, too, and is now 0-for-9 over the past three games. San Jose went 0-for-3. Reimer finished with 26 saves, and Talbot had 17.

"We could have easily tied it up and that 4-on-4, we'd like to have that one back," Foligno said. "But it is what it is. We gotta understand that when you don't have it, you've gotta play smart. You gotta play simple and wait for your feet to get underneath you."