Wild unable to hold early leads

The Wild has become a very consistent team. Unfortunately, right now, that's not a good thing. Witness Tuesday's 2-1 loss to the red-hot Anaheim Ducks. The Wild lost a one-goal game in which it surrendered the early lead thanks to a third-period collapse.

This should sound very familiar to anyone who has watched the Wild tumble from atop the Western Conference to out of the playoffs thanks to a slump that has reached epic proportions. The team is 5-16-5 since Dec. 13, and the Wild has dropped to 0-3 in its current four-game home stand, which ends Thursday against the Winnipeg Jets.

The reason is simple: No offense. Again Tuesday, the Wild defended well against the surging Dicks, who are 13-2-3 in their last 18 games. The Wild killed four penalties, including a double-minor at the end of the second period and the start of the third. But because the team couldn't score more than one goal, the feeling was another collapse was coming. And it did, with the Ducks rallying for two third-period goals.

"You can even see it on the bench, when it's 1-0 and when we're getting some of those 2-on-1's, when we're getting some of these chances, when we don't score," Wild coach Mike Yeo said. "It's because there's the sense, 'Oh, no, not again.' But that's what we have to fight through."

It's getting close to being too late for the Wild.

"We'll keep fighting," Yeo said. "Before you win consistently, you have to do things that winners do. It's easy to do the right things when things are going really well for you. How we handle this says a lot about us as well."

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