So much for that celebration.
A few hours after immortalizing longtime captain Mikko Koivu on Sunday night at Xcel Energy Center — his No. 9 will live forever in the rafters at the X — the Wild fell 6-2 to the Nashville Predators in a game that got away from them down the stretch.
Think of it as karma after the Wild walked into Madison Square Garden a couple of months ago and beat the New York Rangers on the same night they retired the jersey number of legendary goaltender Henrik Lundqvist.
Though the Wild appeared to be gaining some traction over the past week or so, they took a couple of steps back in the loss to the Predators.
No doubt the biggest issue for the Wild is their continued struggles on special teams. Not do they fail to capitalize on the power play seemingly every night, the penalty kill can’t stop a nosebleed right now.
With the home crowd still buzzing on the heels of an emotional pregame ceremony, the Predators went up 1-0 midway through the first thanks to a goal by Filip Forsberg. That put the Wild in chase mode for the umpteenth time this season before Matt Boldy leveled the score at 1-1 by cleaning up a rebound in front.
The score held into the second period where Roman Josi made it 2-1 in favor of the Predators with a backhander from the slot.
While the Wild got a goal from Jordan Greenway a few minutes later to level the score at 2-2, Philip Tomasino scored for the Predators a mere 50 seconds to make it 3-2.
With the Wild trying to mount a comeback, Josi scored on the power play early in the third period to stretch the lead to 4-2. That was more than enough for the Predators with Forsberg adding an empty-netter to make it 5-2 before Nick Cousins finalized the score at 6-2 with an empty-netter of his own.
