RALEIGH — No Kirill Kaprizov. No Jared Spurgeon. No problem.
The Minnesota Wild, without both their star winger and captain, clamped down on the Hurricanes on Saturday at Lenovo Center, getting two goals from Mats Zuccarello and a 21-save shutout from goalie Filip Gustavsson in a 4-0 win.
“The execution, the battle level, the 50/50s, the special teams, just the mindset — everything was just wrong,” Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal said. “And that’s what it looks like, and I feel bad for our fans.”
While the Wild, even without two key pieces, imposed their will on the home team, Carolina’s flat play certainly helped the visitors’ cause.
The Hurricanes were given a reprieve for their slow start when Minnesota center Joel Eriksson Ek was called for a four-minute high-sticking penalty.
Carolina’s power play, however, was equally bad, and shortly after the game got back to 5-on-5 just past the midway point of the first period, Zuccarello scored his first on a one-timer from the right circle to give the Wild a 1-0 lead at 13:03.
“That was a tough game right from the start,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “I think the power play sucked the life out of us right at the start — we had the four-minuter. And then he just never got going.”
Minnesota doubled its lead in the second period, scoring on a redirection by Eriksson Ek on the power play to make it 2-0 at 11:30.
“We were kind of just hoping something good was going to happen and hoping maybe someone else was going to do it,” Staal said. “We lost the special teams battle, which always hurts. And our 5-on-5 play was pretty ugly.”
Carolina seemed to halve the Wild’s lead late in the second when Jalen Chatfield scored, but Minnesota challenged. The goal was overturned because Jackson Blake was exiting the ice through the bench door as the puck was dumped into the zone earlier in the sequence, resulting in an offside.
“Their guy played great too,” Brind’Amour said of Gustavsson. “You’ve gotta tip your hat. Especially early when (Seth Jarvis) had a couple of those little in-tight ones. The game goes a different way, maybe, if we get one — even that one that gets called back, if that gets us some life — but we just couldn’t get going.”
The Hurricanes pushed back in the first half of the third period but were unable to dent Gustavsson, and Carolina center Jack Drury — playing his first game after missing 10 straight following hand surgery — had his point shot blocked, leading to a Matthew Boldy breakaway goal at 9:20 to extend the lead to 3-0.
Zuccarello added an empty-net goal with 2:46 remaining for the Wild.
It was a frustrating game for Carolina, especially coming off arguably its season-best performance against the Panthers on Thursday in Florida. Andrei Svechnikov — who has one goal and two assists in his last dozen games — seemed particularly frazzled.
In the first period, he had a scoring chance that Gustavsson gloved. After the whistle, Svechnikov skated to the side of the net and dejectedly laid his head on the top of the net. Twice in the game, he barked at officials, wanting a penalty called on the Wild.
“No, no frustration, to be honest,” Svechnikov said after the game. “I don’t know what you saw there, but obviously I’ve got that stretch right now, and I’ve got to find ways just to put the puck in the net.”
Brind’Amour conceded that Svechnikov is struggling right now.
“He probably is a little frustrated, that’s obvious,” the coach said.
The Hurricanes, 23-14-2 and in third place in the Metropolitan Division, will get the opportunity to shake off Saturday’s loss on Sunday when the Penguins visit.
“It’s got to change, Brind’Amour said. “We’ve got to get on a roll, but that consistency is the big issue with our group right now. We play really well and then not so good. Finding that consistency is what we’ve got to get to.”
Svechnikov added, “I mean, we’ve got to find it somehow.”
Notes: Pyotr Kochetkov kept the game closer than it should have been and finished with 23 saves on 26 shots. … Marco Rossi had four assists, a career high for both assists and points in a game. … The Wild also had a goal taken off the board for goaltender interference at 12:58 of the third period. … Dmitry Orlov had five of Carolina’s 20 giveaways.
