NEWARK, N.J. – The Wild aren't failing the eye test.
They have been performing in all their recent games except one, occasionally even deserving a better outcome than they received, and they have improved in areas that had been giving them trouble like their starts and defending.
But the numbers tell a different story.
After the Wild were downed 4-3 by the Devils on Sunday at Prudential Center, they return home from their road trip with one point out of a possible six due to three consecutive losses.
Overall, they have only one victory in their past six games.
"There's a lot of positives," coach Dean Evason said. "But it gets tough to continue to talk about positives when you're not getting results."
Despite leading, an edge that was later preserved by a successful coach's challenge, the Wild fell behind during a three-goal second period by New Jersey that saw the Devils' top-ranked power play capitalize twice.
The Wild's own power play had a chance to respond twice in the third, including in the final minutes when the team pulled goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury to have a 6-on-4 advantage. But they managed just one shot on net, from Kirill Kaprizov, and finished a woeful 1-for-6. New Jersey went 2-for-3.