Maybe the Minnesota Wild should go back on the road.More Wild coveragePhotos of the Week: 12/30/18 – 1/5/19Wild Breakaway: Wild start slow Custom Minnesota Wild Jerseys , finish fast in beating OttawaSpurgeon scores twice, Wild beat Senators 4-3WATCH: Wild’s Spurgeon scores pair of goals vs. OttawaSt. Cloud State’s Ryan Poehling shines at World Junior ChampionshipActually, they aren’t likely to volunteer for extra games away from the Xcel Energy Center, but their 5-2 loss to the Washington Capitals on Tuesday night was nothing like the 5-2-0 road trip they completed to get within three points of first-place Nashville in the Central Division.Article continues below ...When Minnesota returns to action Thursday night with a visit from the Vancouver Canucks, it hopes that the mistakes and missed chances of the previous game are replaced by the attention to detail and timely scoring that helped it do so well during its 15-day sojourn.“It just felt like some of the mistakes we made were none that we’ve been making over the last while,” forward Eric Staal said. “Against a good team, if Duby’s not standing on his head, which he still made some pretty good saves, it’s going to cost you. Tonight, it did.”Duby is goalie Devan Dubnyk, who’s on track for one of the best seasons of his career with an 8-4-2 record, a 2.34 goals-against average and a .927 save percentage. But he couldn’t do much to prevent Washington from jumping on a 3-0 second-period lead that held up, even as the Wild (11-5-2) got six power play chances against an opponent ranking 29th in the league while short-handed.Minnesota’s one real chance to get back into the game came after Mikko Koivu got the Wild on the board with an unassisted goal midway through the second period. It carried play to the Capitals for the remainder of the period but couldn’t shift momentum with a second goal.“We build that momentum and you can’t let it die down Patrick Kane Jersey ,” forward Charlie Coyle said. “You just have to do whatever you can, if you’re not putting them in the back of the net, to just get those opportunities and keep working. I guess we got away from it.”The Wild will attempt to get back to it against Vancouver (10-8-2), which got off to a surprisingly fast start but has shown signs of late that it might be regressing to the mean.The Canucks are at the end of a six-game road trip on which they have gone 1-2-2 with three straight losses, including a 5-2 decision Tuesday night against the New York Islanders.“It’s been a grind a little bit, but it’s not an excuse,” Vancouver coach Travis Green said. “In the NHL nowadays, you’ve got to be able to win on the road. We get home in a few days. We’ve got one more game and we’re going to finish this trip off with a win.”Vancouver gave up a weird own goal that snapped a 1-1 first-period tie when Josh Bailey’s pass hit off the skate of Chris Tanev, then allowed a backbreaking fourth goal in the third period as Tom Kuhnhackl booted home a centering pass. It was allowed to stand, even though it appeared to be a kicking motion.The teams met Oct. 29 in British Columbia, with Vancouver dumping Minnesota 5-2 behind two goals from electrifying rookie Elias Pettersson. He has 10 goals and seven assists in 14 games, but hasn’t scored during his team’s losing streak. ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) The Minnesota Wild skated to the NHL trade deadline in an enviable position www.montrealcanadiensteamshops.com , on track for the playoffs with their lineup almost intact again.Though the top two teams in the daunting Central Division bolstered their rosters on the last day for dealing of the season, the Wild weren’t worried. They’ve won four straight games to surge into fourth place in the Western Conference.”I like what we have and the way we’re playing,” coach Bruce Boudreau said on Monday, about two hours before the trade deadline. ”Obviously to get into the playoffs and to go anywhere, we have to play better.”That’s essentially what they’ve done, though, after stumbling through their first 20 games. They’re 26-12-4 since Nov. 9, and 10 of their next 11 games are against teams currently below the cut for the postseason.”We’re showing that we’re sticking to the game plan,” center Matt Cullen said. ”Early in the year, we may have changed things up a little bit if things weren’t going our way and find ourselves in trouble and dig a hole, but I think it’s been pretty good here lately.”Nashville acquired left wing Ryan Hartman from Chicago and re-signed center Mike Fisher for the stretch run. Winnipeg landed center Paul Stastny in a surprising swap with suddenly skidding St. Louis. The only move the Wild made on Monday was to trade defenseman Mike Reilly to Montreal for a fifth-round draft pick.”I don’t let it bother me,” Boudreau said. ”I’ve always believed if we do the right things, then usually good things happen. I’ve been on both sides.”They’re expecting defenseman Jonas Brodin back from a broken left hand this week http://www.redwingsshoponline.com/authe … tha-jersey , and their forward depth has been sound enough that they let right wing Chris Stewart go in a waiver claim by Calgary. That gives the Wild some more space under the salary cap for future maneuvering.”We pretty well knew he was going to get picked up,” Boudreau said. ”He’s too good a person, too good a teammate for nothing to happen to him.”The Wild, who host the Blues on Tuesday, have displayed an invaluable ability to rally lately. They turned a 2-0 deficit in the final minute of the second period against San Jose on Sunday into a 3-2 overtime victory . They trailed 2-0 at New Jersey on Thursday and charged back to win 4-2.”Lately, we’re getting that feeling that we’re never out of it,” goalie Devan Dubnyk said. ”That’s an important one to have.”Even more critical than this late-season resilience has been the productivity of these victories. Sometimes teams can get hot and still go nowhere in the standings, but the Wild have timed their streak well against slumps by some of their closest Western Conference competitors.”It’s a good sign for us, but it’s still going to be tight,” left wing Zach Parise said. ”We all know there’s not a lot of points separating the teams, so we’ve got to keep improving and worry about ourselves. You don’t want to find yourselves in a spot where you have to scoreboard watch.”—