ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Fiberglass connected with the back of the Wild bench in periodic succession, a visual representation of the few dominoes remaining between Minnesota and an unexpected, excruciating end.
Thomas Vanek. Matt Cooke. Mikael Granlund slammed his own stick so hard, it caused teammate Jordan Schroeder to inch away in discomfort.
And that was just the end of the second period.
In the third, Jason Pominville became so discombobulated, he literally tripped over the puck off a faceoff. Less than an hour later, Zach Parise sat alone in front of his locker stall and stared at select carpet granules on the floor in front of him.
Dejection. Blended with downright confusion.
A Game 3 goose-egg that came with prime chance after prime chance had Minnesota, on the brink of elimination after barging its way into the playoffs, coming up with the most blatant of utterances to try and characterize its plight.
"We can't win if we don't score," winger Nino Niederreiter said after the Wild were devastated, 1-0, by Chicago on Tuesday. "That's exactly what happened tonight."
Said Pominville, who sent a point-blank shot over goalie Corey Crawford's head early in the second period: "You miss chances, you're not sitting there feeling happy about missing a chance. It's obviously frustrating. It's not fun."
And Parise, whose team did everything but tickle the twine as it slipped into a chasm few teams in any sport have ever escaped: "We didn't score one, so I don't think we did enough. There's got to be something more we can do."
Like what, all-time leading playoff scorer in Wild history?
"Shoot where (Crawford) isn't. Maybe it'll go in. I don't know."
It's a conundrum so straightforward yet so enigmatic. After Tuesday night's donut on West Kellogg, Minnesota has one goal in the past 150 minutes, 30 seconds of ice time. Blackhawks star Patrick Kane has as many goals (four) in this Western Conference semifinals series as the entire Wild team, including the only marker in its third stanza.
Coach Mike Yeo said after a 4-1 Game 2 loss Sunday that Minnesota strayed from its core concepts. In the final two periods Tuesday, it executed them to perfection and came up fruitless.
"We couldn't buy one," Suter said.
Not with Crawford sprawling to swipe a Parise chance off the goal line in the third, paddling away a Granlund breakaway chance with his blocker in the second and deflecting shots into the netting all night en route to 30 saves and his fourth career playoff shutout.
Two of them have come against the Wild. In the past three postseasons, Crawford's 10-3 against them with a 1.71 goals-against average -- his best versus any playoff opponent.
"He's a star against us," said Yeo, one more defeat away from watching Chicago terminate Minnesota's season for a consecutive spring. "He's Brodeur. He's Roy. He's everybody against us, so we've got to find a way to solve that."
The Wild had every opportunity to Tuesday, limiting Chicago's patented rush chances -- save for Kane's 3-on-2 goal -- and creating chances off their feisty forecheck.
Vanek nearly deflected an airborne pass into the net, but Crawford slid across the crease to stop it. Minnesota, the league's best power-play team these playoffs, went 0-for-3 with the man advantage. With 45 seconds left and Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk on the bench, the X held its collective breath as defenseman Matt Dumba sent a howitzer toward the net.
And straight into Crawford's breadbasket.
"I think that was definitely our best game of the series," Niederreiter said. "I feel like we had enough chances to win this hockey game. We played a great game today and just didn't get the bounces the way we wanted to."
Led by Patrick Sharp, Johnny Oduya and Michal Rozsival with four apiece, the Blackhawks tallied 19 blocked shots. Twelve more Minnesota attempts sailed wide of the goal mouth.
There's not much left to do other than play the same aggressive, two-way style that created so many opportunities Tuesday and paced the Wild to the NHL's best record after the All-Star break. Only four teams in league history have come back from a 3-0 series deficit, including the Kings in last year's first round against San Jose.
And if it can't figure out Crawford -- who's been a mainstay in Chicago's net the past half-decade but was benched for Scott Darling in the first round against Nashville, only to come back and stop 90 of 94 shots this series -- Minnesota won't soon become the fifth.
"Every line had some Grade-A scoring chances," Pominville said, straying back into the plainly apparent because there's nowhere for him or his team to hide. "We've got to find a way to put one in, and we weren't able to do that tonight."
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