ST. PAUL -- At one point during a second-period penalty kill Saturday night, Minnesota Wild forwards John Madden and Cal Clutterbuck and defensemen Greg Zanon and Cam Barker each had the puck on their sticks, sometimes twice.
The San Jose Sharks swarmed, and each time kept the Wild players from clearing the zone.
That frantic minute in which the Wild lost battles and were outraced epitomized a 4-3 loss that kept Minnesota from re-entering the top eight in the West.
As the saying goes, "speed kills," and the Sharks buried the Wild in their own end by skating at warp speed all night.
"They exposed us a little bit," winger Andrew Brunette said. "They came at us, we hung in there and gave ourselves a chance to win, but we have to be better. We have to be much cleaner in our own zone. We were sloppy."
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A step behind
The Wild have been winning more than losing the past month, and some of that has been against fast teams. But in the times the Wild have been really off, it's typically in games where the pace is fast and the opponent is really fast.
In recent losses to Nashville, coach Todd Richards noted that certain players seemed unable to handle the speed. In three games this season against Edmonton, the Wild have forked over 23 power plays because the Oilers, despite losing all three of those games, skated circles around the Wild.
"You can play fast with your legs or you can play fast with your mind," Richards said after the San Jose loss. "At times they caught us from behind and stripped pucks from us, but that's what they do."
One of those times, Clayton Stoner tried to skate the puck out of his end, was chased down by Jamal Mayers, had the puck stripped and reacted by taking a penalty.
Devin Setoguchi scored his second goal in a span of 2 minutes, 40 seconds on the ensuing power play, giving San Jose a 3-1 lead.
"We weren't very crisp, and we weren't handling the puck well, and it caused trouble with their pressure and us not breaking out of our own end," Stoner said.
Goalie Niklas Backstrom was tremendous, making 38 saves -- 23 in a one-sided second period. Backstrom was frustrated afterward, saying the Wild played their worst game in "six or seven weeks" and needs to understand that they win only when they defend well, not giving up "odd-man rushes" and scrambling around their end.
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It didn't help matters against a big, fast San Jose team that the Wild played more than half the game with five defensemen. Good-skating defenseman Nick Schultz was lost early in the second period with what Richards said "might" be his second head injury in a month.
Schultz was actually injured in the first period, possibly on a rattling check from Mayers. However, Schultz did skate Sunday and the team is hopeful he'll be able to play Tuesday in Chicago.
For a team already thin on the blue line because of injuries to Marek Zidlicky and Marco Scandella, Schultz's loss would be, as Richards said, a "huge blow."
Mikko Koivu's two goals and Brent Burns' one gave the Wild a chance, but there was genuine disappointment after.
"Nobody's happy with that performance," Stoner said. "The only way to make sure it's not a step back is to make sure we take a step forward next game and take it to Chicago in Chicago."
Worth another look
Setoguchi's second goal -- San Jose's third -- came after the Sharks forward scored on what came close to a high stick. The referee called it a good goal, a linesman thought it was a high stick, Backstrom said, but there was no conclusive video evidence to overturn the call.
Not finding conclusive video on questionable high-sticks has been a trend lately in the NHL.
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"They've got to find better camera angles," Backstrom said. "You invest all this money in cameras and replays. It's big goals, so they've got to find a way to be sure, so maybe we don't have to talk about it."
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