ST. PAUL, Minn. _ With five forwards sidelined by injuries, the Wild welcomed lots of new faces to the locker room before Saturday's home opener. Coach Bruce Boudreau urged his team to look at it as a challenge to integrate four players called up from the team's AHL affiliate in Iowa _ Luke Kunin, Christoph Bertschy, Zack Mitchell and Landon Ferraro _ and find a way to beat Columbus.
"Excuses are for losers," Boudreau said bluntly. "We plan on being as good as we were (in Thursday's 5-2 victory at Chicago), and I'm convinced if we play the right way, good things are going to happen."
Not enough good things happened, though, in a 5-4 overtime loss to the Blue Jackets at Xcel Energy Center. Despite the loss of Charlie Coyle, Nino Niederreiter and Marcus Foligno _ all hurt against the Blackhawks _ and the continuing absence of Zach Parise and Mikael Granlund, the Wild held a 4-2 lead with 17 minutes, 21 seconds remaining. But two late Columbus goals, and the overtime winner by Alexander Wennberg, spoiled things for a festive crowd announced at 19,064.
Eric Staal gave the Wild a 1-0 lead at 15 minutes, 50 seconds of the first period, but the Blue Jackets pulled even on Zach Werenski's goal at 16:25. After Tyler Ennis scored on a power play early in the second period, Landon Ferraro poked in a loose puck for a 3-1 Wild lead at 5:07 of the second period.
Columbus cut the margin back to one on David Savard's slapshot at 7:42 of the second. Ennis made it 4-2 with a power-play goal at 1:42 of the third, then the Blue Jackets tied it with goals by Cam Atkinson at 2:39 and Josh Anderson at 16:23.
Boudreau anticipated energy would not be a problem for his team Saturday. He thought the vitality surrounding the long-awaited home opener would pump up his patched-together lineup, and center Matt Cullen figured the veterans might even need to help keep the team's emotions from running too hot.
On a sheet of ice fortified with pond, lake and rink water from around the state, tenor John deCausmeaker debuted as the new national anthem singer. Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve and forward Rebekkah Brunson _ who brought their fourth WNBA championship trophy _ led a raucous "Let's Play Hockey" cheer. The Wild, though, only intermittently matched that fervor in the first period.
With so many new players, there was little flow to the offense early on. Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk made a couple of good saves, and the Wild displayed an effective penalty kill during the first half of the period. Then, at 15:50, Staal's goal got the offense going.
Staal raced through the neutral zone to start a give-and-go with Chris Stewart. He dished to Stewart at the right boards, then darted toward the net, ditching Columbus's Nick Foligno as Stewart sent the puck back to him. Staal put a move on goalie Sergei Bobrovsky and shot over his left shoulder, celebrating a 1-0 lead with a primal roar.
It took only 35 seconds for the Blue Jackets to tie it. Wennberg caught the Wild defense napping, spying Werenski untended in the left circle. Wennberg passed to Werenski for a goal at 16:25, and the teams went into the first intermission tied 1-1.
Ennis and his boyhood pal, Jared Spurgeon, combined to restore the Wild's lead at 2:58 of the second period. After the Blue Jackets' Zac Dalpe was called for holding Gustav Olofsson, Spurgeon spotted Ennis in the right circle and delivered the puck to him for a power-play goal.
The lead expanded to 3-1 at 5:07, thanks to two of the players recalled from Iowa. After Mitchell gained control of the puck, Ferarro hit Bobrovsky with a shot that slipped through his pads. The puck lay in the crease behind the goalie, who did not know it was loose, and Ferraro dived from the left of the goal cage to poke it in.
Ennis got his second goal on a power play early in the third period when a Mikko Koivu shot banged off his skate and slid under Bobrovsky to make it 4-2. Atkinson scored on a rebound and Anderson on a deflection to tie it.
