Greg Zanon was just about ready to snap the shaft of his stick over the
crossbar. Eric Nystrom merely threw his head back and looked into the
Xcel Energy Center rafters. The visiting Phoenix Coyotes had just made
it look a little too easy on a goal that gave them a 2-0 lead 5:43 into
the second period.
It turned out to be another deficit the Wild could not overcome.
Minnesota responded with the game's next goal, the first of two
encouraging strikes to cut the lead to one, but the Coyotes managed to
keep the Wild in the rear view mirror and hold on for a 4-2 win.
Now winless in three straight and in five of its previous six, Minnesota slipped to .500 for the first time since Oct. 30.
"I don't think anybody needs to be told that the sooner we work
ourselves out of this funk the better off we're going to be," Cal
Clutterbuck said afterward.
Still, there were positive signs in the defeat. There was no 20-minute
slump. There was no great deficit in shots against.
Though he conceded it was
