Wild lose 4-1 to Penguins; Joel Erikkson Ek, Oskar Sundqvist leave with injuries

PITTSBURGH — The Penguins had much more at stake than the Wild, and they played like it.

In their first game since clinching a playoff berth, the Wild were sunk 4-1 by the uber-urgent Penguins on Thursday in front of 18,417 at PPG Paints Arena to drop a third consecutive game.

This is the Wild's longest skid since they went 0-3 coming out of the All-Star break Feb. 6-9, and they held a team meeting after the loss. The message? No complacency.

"Obviously, it's a good accomplishment to make the playoffs," goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury said. "But as a team, you want to go into the playoffs rolling."

Rickard Rakell's one-timer on the power play 10 minutes, 53 seconds into the second period was the game-winning goal for a Pittsburgh squad vying to join the likes of the Wild in the postseason, but Rakell's finish wasn't the only part of that Penguins power play that stung the Wild.

Seconds earlier, Joel Eriksson Ek blocked an Evgeni Malkin shot and the Wild's top center was still hobbling when Rakell scored.

Eriksson Ek was eventually helped off the ice and didn't return, exiting with a lower-body injury.

"He's a guy that's tough to replace," Marcus Johansson said.

But the Wild finished down two forwards, not one: Oskar Sundqvist left earlier in the second, also with a lower-body injury.

Coach Dean Evason said he wasn't sure of the severity of each player's situation.

"We'll evaluate both the guys and figure out where they're at [Friday]," Evason said.

The Wild have only four games to go in the regular season, but they're still battling for seeding in the Central Division and are also missing two other forwards to injury in Kirill Kaprizov and Gustav Nyquist.

Those two are getting closer to returning, and the Wild's offense looks primed for a spark.

Pittsburgh played keep-away for much of the first period, peppering Fleury with shots; No. 17 finally eluded Fleury, a shot from the right side by Kris Letang that slipped between Fleury and the near post at 15:02.

"They were more desperate than us, and they came out hotter and kind of looked like they wanted it more," Johansson said. "We can't wait 'til we're down and start chasing. We gotta be better from the start."

Despite being down two forwards for a chunk of the second and giving up that power play goal to Rakell, the Wild began to turn the page in the second and that improvement carried over to the third. But their deficit swelled to 3 when former Wild forward Jason Zucker converted on a one-timer through traffic 2:58 into the period.

The Wild's best opportunity to start climbing out of their hole came later in the third when they went on a 5-on-3 power play for 1:27, and they took advantage almost immediately when Johansson jammed the puck in at 7:39. Matt Boldy's assist was his 100th career point, making him the second fastest among players to debut with the team to hit the milestone.

Still, the Wild didn't capitalize during the remaining 1:42 of power play time to end up 1-for-5 (Pittsburgh went 1-for-4) and they remained behind the Penguins, who tacked on a fourth goal when Jeff Carter tipped in the puck while crashing the net at 13:08.

Fleury and the Penguins' Tristan Jarry each totaled 27 saves.

"We want to win games and we want to go into the playoffs playing the right way," Johansson said. "So, we have four more games to get back to the right way and it's up to us to do it."

Time will tell if the Wild will get back to full strength during this tuneup.

"You're losing big guys, big pieces," Fleury said. "But hopefully we get some guys back sooner than later. We miss Kirill. Obviously, he's one of the best players in the league. I feel like everybody stepped up and pushed a little bit more to fill the hole, the gap when he was gone.

"But we've got to keep the same mentality."