Wild strike early, often in 5-2 win over Golden Knights

ST. PAUL, Minn. — It took a bout of fatigue to turn the Golden Knights into what most people expected them to be — a mediocre expansion team.

On the heels of making history Thursday with an NHL-record 34th win, the Knights had little energy Friday at the Xcel Energy Center and the Minnesota Wild took full advantage. Three goals in the game’s first 21:11 were more than enough as the Wild defeated the Knights 5-2 in front of 19,057 and dropped the Knights to 2-1 on the current six-game road trip.

“We didn’t play well at all,” coach Gerard Gallant said after his team’s third game in four nights. “We looked like a tired team for the first time this year.

“There’s no excuse. You’re playing back-to-back but everyone plays ‘em. But I didn’t like our team tonight. We had no compete and we didn’t win the one-on-one battles. And with the slow start, that was the game right there.”

The Knights had rallied late to win Tuesday in Calgary and prevailed in overtime Thursday at Winnipeg. Perhaps it was a bit of fool’s gold.

“We’ve been salvaging points and when you cheat and you don’t play your best game, you hear it from everybody,” said defenseman Nate Schmidt, who scored the team’s second goal Friday, beating Devan Dubnyk with 7:22 to play and cutting the deficit to 4-2. “It’s unacceptable for my own game. We were on our heels right from the start of the game.”

Erik Haula, who had the other goal, his 20th, which came on a second-period power play, was in no mood to celebrate any individual accomplishment against his former team.

“It’s tough on the road when you get down early and you’re not playing like you want to and you give all the confidence in the world to the other team,” Haula said. “We weren’t good enough. No excuses.

“It’s been a little bit of a turn where we haven’t played the way we want to the last couple of games and we got away with a couple on the road early. (Friday) showed we really need to be better.”

Eric Staal, Charlie Coyle and Tyler Ennis staked Minnesota to the 3-0 lead and the Knights never got out of first gear. They played better in the third period, but it was evident it wasn’t going to be enough as the Pacific Division leaders fell to 34-13-4 heading into Sunday’s game in Washington against the Metropolitan Division-leading Capitals.

Trailing 4-1 after Jared Spurgeon’s power-play goal late in the second period, Gallant tried to light a spark by shuffling his lines at the start of the third period. He moved James Neal to Cody Eakin’s line while playing Alex Tuch with Haula and David Perron.

“You want to change something up,” Gallant said. “You’re not playing well so you try and flip the lines a little and try and get something going.”

Staal finished things with goaltender Malcolm Subban on the bench for a sixth attacker. Staal was hooked by David Perron after breaking into the clear for what would have been an empty-net goal. As a result, he was awarded the goal with 1:29 to play, his 22nd, and his second of the game.

It was that kind of night for the Knights, who have Saturday off.

“It’s good to get a day off a regroup,” Haula said. “We were playing better in the end, and, hopefully, we can take from that and not go back to the first-period habits.”

Contact Steve Carp at scarp@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2913. Follow @stevecarprj on Twitter.