VANCOUVER, British Columbia _ Bruce Boudreau promised the Vancouver Canucks, despite their top defense pair sidelined and the youngest cast of six defensemen in the NHL, wouldn't be pushovers.
He was right.
In what was expected to be a low-scoring affair between two tight-checking teams, the Minnesota Wild first coughed-up a two-goal lead, then fell behind by two goals almost immediately once the third period began and then had to rally from a two-goal deficit before ultimately falling in regulation, 5-4.
In a crazy game, Sven Baertschi scored on a crazy redirection off a point shot that was heading way wide with 2 minutes, 35 seconds left to end the Wild's point streak at four games.
With Devan Dubnyk getting the night off, Darcy Kuemper struggled behind a leaky defense and penalty kill after Jason Pominville scored twice to give the Wild a 2-0 lead.
Brandon Sutter and Ben Hutton scored power-play goals 1:59 apart in the second period, then Loui Eriksson and Sven Baertschi gave the Canucks a 4-2 lead by the time the third period was 128 seconds old.
But Jason Zucker cut the deficit to 4-3 on a breakaway goal, and after the Wild's penalty kill finally did come up big, Ryan Suter tied the score on a deflected wrist shot with 5:49 left.
In the arena where the Nino Niederreiter-Erik Haula-Pominville line was created last Feb. 15 by former interim coach John Torchetti, the reunited line cashed in twice Tuesday and was the line on when Suter scored.
The trio combined for 10 shots and was a combined plus-7.
Pominville buried Niederreiter's rebound in the first period, then walloped Haula's apple in the second for his first regular-season two-goal game since March 5, 2015, and his first goals overall in 10 games.
All was going perfectly for the Wild when Pominville sniped his second goal 3:24 into the second. The Wild looked to be cruising toward a third win in the past five games, especially when Zucker drew the game's first penalty less than three minutes later.
But suddenly, the wheels fell off as Vancouver scored twice in a span of 1:59.
With 19 seconds left in the advantage, Matt Dumba fenced off Sutter on a clear at the Wild blue line for textbook interference. Sutter made the Wild pay by redirecting Troy Stecher's shot to cut the deficit to 2-1.
Eighteen seconds later, Jonas Brodin took a hooking penalty. With penalty killers Haula, Pominville, Dumba and Marco Scandella unable to clear the zone for more than 75 seconds, Hutton tied the score on a way-too-easy goal.
Henrik Sedin slithered a puck into the crease for his brother, Daniel. The puck got past Henrik's twin, but Dumba, maybe tired and certainly not on the same page as Kuemper, did nothing to clear the puck out of harm's way. Somehow, Kuemper couldn't smother the puck and Hutton finally roofed a look-what-I-found goal.
It was a shame because the Wild had firm control of the game. At the time of Pominville's second goa, the Wild had a 26-11 shot lead. The Canucks had 12 of the period's final 16 shots.
It was the second time this season Vancouver scored two power-play goals in a game and came against a suddenly leaky Wild penalty kill.
In the first 10 games of the season, the Wild's kill was 26 for 27 for a league-best 96.3 percent. In the past 12 games, the Wild's kill is 27 for 37, dousing just 72.9 percent of opposing power plays.
The Wild was solid in the first period, outshooting Vancouver 14-7 and taking a 1-0 lead on Pominville's first goal.
The Canucks thought they tied the score when Henrik Sedin converted a rebound of a fumbled Hutton shot. But Boudreau challenged citing goalie interference. After a long review by referees Wes McCauley and Graham Skilliter, the goal was overturned because Kuemper's ability to make the save was impeded.
Replays showed when Kuemper slid left, he ran right into Sutter and couldn't get his glove up.
