Minnesota Wild players accept their fate, and an official’s apology, after loss to Seattle Kraken

The Kraken finally overcame the Wild in a shootout, connecting on their first two shots after the Wild went 1-for-3 on their attempts.

But if a no-call and wrong call seconds apart half a game earlier were reversed, the chess match that Seattle won 5-4 on Saturday night at Xcel Energy Center might never have happened.

“It’s not like you can go back in time and change stuff,” Ryan Hartman said. “Nobody’s going to feel sorry for us getting a bad call.”

Or two.

While leading the Kraken 2-1 in the second period, the Wild were dealt with a pair of momentum shifts on one shift.

After Joel Eriksson Ek was elbowed by Seattle’s Adam Larsson behind the Kraken net, the play progressed to the front of the benches, and that’s where Jonas Brodin got tripped by Brandon Tanev.

But when the whistle blew, the Kraken weren’t dinged for either infraction: The Wild were.

Brodin, despite falling to the ice, was penalized for tripping Tanev, who was clipped by Brodin’s skate as Brodin fell.

Larsson wasn’t punished at all even though Eriksson Ek left the ice bloodied.

Eriksson Ek did return for the third period wearing a protective visor but left after only one shift.

While Brodin was in the penalty box, Seattle used the power play to score its first of three tying goals before prevailing in the shootout.

“It’s just tough because it’s common sense, right?” alternate captain Marcus Foligno said. “[Brodin’s] got the puck, making a move, and the guy goes to hit him and — yeah, it’s brutal. I mean, I don’t really understand that call at all.

“It’s tough, right, because then they score on it.”

Brodin said the official apologized to him afterward, explaining he saw the wrong stick.

“We can’t dwell on that,” Mats Zuccarello said. “The refs do their best every night, too, and obviously sometimes we don’t agree with them. But we can’t let that get in our head and focus on that. We just have to keep playing and keep playing hard, and obviously today we felt like we should have won this game.

“But give credit to them, too. They came back and did a good job, too.”

The Kraken might not have been so resilient after go-ahead goals in the third period by Kirill Kaprizov and Hartman if Eriksson Ek remained in action.

After capitalizing in the Wild’s season-opening 3-2 victory over Columbus on Thursday, Eriksson Ek was a factor again vs. Seattle, setting a screen in front on Matt Boldy’s power-play goal early in the second period.

Coach John Hynes didn’t have an update on Eriksson Ek’s status after the game.

The Wild play at Winnipeg on Sunday and do have an extra forward available in Liam Ohgren. But if other forwards are injured, they would have to make a call-up. Marcus Johansson left later in the second period after colliding with Jordan Eberle but returned to finish the game.

As for the team as a whole, this was a better effort from the Wild despite them blowing multiple leads and dropping a point.

Subtract a few breakdowns and they could have held off the Kraken to begin a stretch of seven consecutive road games undefeated — even with that double whammy in the second period.

“This is how we should play to win hockey games,” Brodin said. “Just gotta keep it going, work on some stuff, and then come back tomorrow. Huge match tomorrow.”