Wild and Timberwolves losses feature failures by Dean Evason, Karl-Anthony Towns

Dean Evason decided to stick to his usual routine in Game 2 of the Wild's playoff series. Unfortunately, 800 miles away, Karl-Anthony Towns failed to deviate from his own playoff script, too.

Both developments — and outcomes — made for a frustrating night of TV viewing Wednesday.

Evason's goalie change backfired in a 7-3 loss to the Dallas Stars that evened the series at 1-1. And Towns' ongoing playoff struggles continued in a 122-113 loss to the Denver Nuggets that put the Timberwolves in a 0-2 series hole.

Feel free to bet the mortgage that Filip Gustavsson will get the nod at goalie for the Wild on Friday night at the X after Fleury's Game 2 fiasco. That's an easy call, to steal Evason's phrase.

But hold off on making any bet that Towns will snap out of his funk in his team's Game 3 at Target Center. He has looked discombobulated on offense through two games.

Late starting times for both games compounded the grumpiness attached to those two topics.

Let's start with Evason's choice to start Marc-Andre Fleury over Gustavsson in Game 2.

Gustavsson was brilliant in Game 1. Historic even, posting a franchise-record 51 saves in a 3-2 win in double overtime. He was one of the NHL's best goalies during the regular season and then backed that up in the playoff opener.

Still, Evason made a change.

Whatever happened to riding a hot goalie in the playoffs? Evason sat his hot goalie.

Why? Apparently because he used a goalie rotation in the regular season.

"It's what we do," Evason said. "We've done it all year. Nothing was on Flower tonight. It was all on us."

That's only partly true. The Wild played a lousy game in front of Fleury. They were sloppy with the puck and loose defensively. They looked completely out of sorts. But Fleury was not a rock amid chaos. With the Wild trailing 2-1, Fleury surrendered a terribly soft goal, one of four goals he gave up in the second period.

Again, Fleury had little help on some of them, but not all, which led him to call his performance "embarrassing."

Evason deserves criticism for not sticking with Gustavsson after his masterful Game 1. Assuming he was fine physically after the extra duty in double OT, Gustavsson should have been in net again. It should have been a no-brainer.

The rotation was successful in the regular season, but the Wild knew the Stars would push back hard with a desperate effort. Fleury hadn't played in more than a week and Gustavsson gave his team the best chance to win.

The optics in Denver weren't much better for Towns, who appeared flustered offensively in another underwhelming performance.

A spirited comeback fueled by Anthony Edwards' 41 points put the Wolves in position to stun the Nuggets after a lethargic first half. But Minnesota ran out of steam, and it is abundantly clear that the Wolves need much more from Towns if this series has any chance of being competitive.

Towns finished with only 10 points on 3 of 12 shooting with five turnovers. His first-half stat line: two points, 0-for-4 shooting, four turnovers and three fouls. In two games, Towns has scored only 21 points total on 8-of-27 shooting with nine turnovers.

His playoff struggles remain a troubling theme. Too many duds and inconsistency when the stakes are raised.

Last season, Town took only four shots in a Game 3 loss in the Memphis series. Foul trouble served as a nagging distraction for him in that series. Poor shooting is the problem in the first two games in this series.

Towns looks rushed against Denver's defense. He's forcing bad shots and wild passes that result in turnovers. He's also missing open shots. He just doesn't look comfortable.

Towns has produced enough of these playoff clunkers that it has become a narrative. Only he can change that.