The Minnesota Wild are still pining to get back to those days earlier in the season when they were seemingly unbeatable for seemingly no reason, not falling back to Earth the way they so spectacularly have in the past few weeks. The Wild dropped two hard to swallow points in the Western Conference playoff race against the hot, streaking Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday night, pushing the Wild's losing streak to five straight games.
Dany Heatley scored his 19th goal of the season early for the Wild, putting them up 1-0. It was a lead that would hold for the Wild as they played decent defense and kept the Ducks shooters out of trouble all the way until the third period. Unfortunately, keeper Jonas Hiller played the hero for Anaheim and the Wild were unable to sneak a second goal past him.
With only a single goal to the Wild's name, the Ducks finally took advantage as Niklas Hagman snuck a puck past Josh Harding at the 8:17 mark to tie it and Corey Perry snagged his 13th goal of 2012 at 12:21 to win it for Anaheim. After the second Ducks goal, the Wild looked defeated and their few good chances were stoned away by Hiller as the time ticked down.
The loss for the Wild puts them down at 12th in the Western Conference with only 58 points still. They are still only five points behind the eighth place Phoenix Coyotes, but at the rate that they continue to drop points it doesn't look likely that they're going to be capable of bridging that gap.
For more on the Minnesota Wild, check out Hockey Wilderness. For more on the Ducks, head to Anaheim Calling.