Lackluster late night for Wild as Panthers flex their muscle

The optimist will point out that it took the Minnesota Wild nearly to the winter solstice to lose consecutive games in regulation this season. The pessimist probably turned off the TV and went to bed at the end of the second period of this weeknight late start.

Florida, the defending Stanley Cup champions, flexed some muscle on Wednesday in St. Paul, scoring early and pulling away in the middle frame on the way to a convincing 6-1 win.

The Wild got a first-period power-play goal from Marco Rossi, but could not keep pace with the Panthers, and have now lost four of their last six. Marc-Andre Fleury had 28 saves for Minnesota, in just his second regulation loss of the season.

The Panthers got a pair of goals from Matthew Tkachuk to win for the fourth time in their past six games, and return a favor from earlier this season. They fell 5-1 to the Wild on Oct. 22 in South Florida, but remained tied with Toronto atop the Atlantic Division standings with Wednesday’s win.

Fleury made it clear that he would be trouble for the Panthers early, with a three-save sequence in the opening minutes that had the visitors frustrated. But Florida found a way to the back of the net before the game was five minutes old, when defenseman Aaron Ekblad sent a shot through a crowd and just inside the left post.

Minnesota appeared to tie the game later in the first when Kirill Kaprizov tipped a shot from Declan Chisholm past Florida goalie Sergei Bobrovsky. Panthers coach Paul Maurice challenged the play for potential goaltender interference, and replays showed that Rossi made some contact with the Florida goalie prior to the shot, negating the goal.

Rossi atoned for the mistake in a major way when he tied the game for real, backhanding a power play shot past Bobrovsky after a set-up from Kaprizov. But Florida re-claimed the lead before the first was over, and Fleury temporarily prevented further trouble midway through the second, thwarting Tomas Nosek’s breakaway rush to the net with a pad save.

Aleksander Barkov returned to the Panthers’ lineup and centered their top line after missing the previous two games due to illness. He appeared to give Florida a 3-1 lead in the second period, but Minnesota successfully challenged the play for offside.

When Tkachuk eventually did give Florida a 3-1 lead late in the second, he followed up the shot with a spinning elbow to the head of Fleury, touching off a scrap that landed Tkachuk and Wild forward Ryan Hartman in adjoining penalty boxes. Tkachuk’s power-play goal late in the second gave the visitors a commanding lead.

The Panthers survived a scare in the third period when Minnesota’s Marat Khusnutdinov checked Florida center Jesper Boqvist into the boards near the Wild bench, and Boqvist’s head hit the curved glass at the end of the bench, dislodging his helmet and dropping him to the ice. Boqvist headed down the tunnel and did not return.

Bobrovsky finished with 26 saves for Florida, which defeated Edmonton in seven games last spring to claim the franchise’s first NHL crown.

The Wild have Thursday off before and home-road back-to-back, hosting Utah on Friday night and traveling to Winnipeg for a Saturday night game.