ST. PAUL, Minn. — In the NHL, things can turn on a dime, and after a 4-1-2 road trip, the Minnesota Wild’s game is starting to show significant cracks from the goaltender on out.
Jesper Wallstedt and the Wild were turned into mincemeat by the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday night as they easily trounced Minnesota 6-2 in its home barn and sent the rookie netminder to the showers, so to speak, after 40 minutes.
The Wild, due to an uncharacteristic lack of discipline and poor details in key areas, completed a winless homestand with a 0-2-1 record and lost consecutive games in regulation for the first time since Dec. 4 and 6, only the fourth time this season. They have won once in their past six games (1-3-2).
Mark Scheifele, the Team Canada snub, recorded a goal and three assists, and Gabriel Vilardi, Josh Morrissey and Jonathan Toews had a goal and an assist each. Connor Hellebuyck made 32 saves, including the game’s first 10 shots, to give the Jets a cushion.
Wallstedt, on the other hand, had one of his toughest starts of the season. He gave up six goals (on 20 shots) for the second time this year and fell to 2-3-2 in his past seven starts with a 3.98 goals-against average and .871 save percentage. In those seven starts, he has given up three or more goals in six.
But being the good leader he is, Wild veteran Mats Zuccarello erased Wallstedt’s number from the board so he wouldn’t have to talk to reporters after the game and instead subbed in for him.
“Everyone goes through struggles (as a) team,” Zuccarello said. “I mean, I wouldn’t even say it’s a struggle. Struggles to get the points we need. We’ve been playing some good hockey, but today it was a tough loss. But we can’t let that creep in. We’ve got 10 more games here (before the Olympics) or whatever it is. We’ve got to stick with it, and obviously we’re gonna watch some tape and we’re going to do (things) differently in some certain areas, but we’ve been playing some really good hockey, so it’s important that we don’t dig ourselves down in a hole and then lose confidence.
“It’s one of those games where you feel like everything goes against you and nothing goes right. You go through a season where there are some games like that.”
The Jets won their sixth consecutive game in Minnesota and their fourth in a row overall since an 11-game losing streak. The Wild are now 2-8-2 in their past 12 overall against their rival from the north.
The Wild, who entered the game with a league-low 312 penalty minutes and second-fewest times shorthanded (112), took four penalties — two that gave the Jets a two-man advantage at the 13:15 mark despite not yet even registering a shot, a second offensive-zone penalty in the game in the second period and an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.
Coach John Hynes felt it was atypical and said it was a good learning lesson to reinforce what the Wild have done so well this season up to this point and why it’s important to continue to be sharp in these types of areas.
“It wasn’t a game where you got dominated or you got outplayed, but we talk a lot about being a disciplined team, a focused team, attention to details is critical,” Hynes said. “And if you’re just taking tonight’s game, those little things matter and that’s why we enforce them and that’s why usually we’re a good team, and tonight it wasn’t that.”
The Wild won’t practice Friday. They travel to Buffalo for a Saturday afternoon game, the start of a three-game trip that includes back-to-back games against the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens.
Disastrous end to the first period
Despite registering the game’s first 10 shots, the Wild gave up the first goal after consecutive careless penalties by Matt Boldy (offensive-zone high-sticking) and Marcus Foligno (tripping) 31 seconds apart.
On the ensuing 1:29 five-on-three, Wallstedt stopped Scheifele’s one-timer but served up a rebound that led to Toews’ goal with 5:52 left in the period.
“I hurt us a bit there,” Foligno said.
The Jets controlled play the rest of the period, but the Wild were still 11 seconds from escaping only down a goal.
But Ben Jones couldn’t keep a puck in the offensive zone, the puck went the other way, and after Quinn Hughes couldn’t clear the zone, Wallstedt gave up a horrible rebound on a harmless-looking point shot from Dylan DeMelo that Tanner Pearson cashed in at the 19:49 mark.
Hynes kept the fourth line out to eat up the rest of the period. Instead, Jones lost the draw, the Wild still ended up with possession and Daemon Hunt managed to ice the puck with five seconds left. Toews roasted Jones on the ensuing faceoff and Scheifele set up Morrissey for a stunning end to the period.
A 1-0 deficit became 3-0 in 11 seconds, and the Wild were booed off the ice.
“We’ve faced adversity the whole season thus far, and we haven’t hit the panic button yet, which is kudos to us as a team,” defenseman Jake Middleton said. “It sucks that it happened at home, but you are going to go through ups and downs throughout the year, and we’re going through that right now.
“This happens to every team. Fortunately, we’re in a better position than some when these things happen. We just got to dig back down deep and find our identity and get back to it.”
The first period started strong for the Wild, but a brutal last 11 seconds sent them into the locker room down 3-0. (Matt Krohn / Imagn Images)
Second period no better than the first
Any chance of a Wild comeback after Danila Yurov’s scorching one-timer cut the deficit to two less than five minutes into the second period ended with a couple of mistakes by Wild veterans.
Zuccarello took a tripping penalty on Morrissey at the offensive goal line. It was a needless penalty that put Winnipeg back onto the power play. But three seconds after the Wild killed the minor, big Logan Stanley scored with a perfect and blinding shot after Foligno burst out of the defensive zone without the puck. Stanley stopped it, skated down the left wall and beat Wallstedt for a 4-1 lead.
“Unfortunately, it was a weird play,” Foligno said. “I thought I had the puck out and he got it back, took a slap shot and he picked a corner, and then it’s 4-1 again. It just seemed like one of those games. Everything was kind of going in, and just things kept falling on top of you when you were hoping to kind of get a breath and couldn’t.”
Then, after Nico Sturm took an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty from the bench by yelling at the officials after Hughes didn’t get a tripping penalty on a breakaway after he toppled over Hellebuyck, Vilardi scored a power-play goal.
“I was just frustrated,” Sturm said. “I thought it was a call, you know, obviously, by that point in the game, kind of frustration got the better of us. Obviously, I apologized for the penalty or the words that I said to (the) ref. I respect the refs in this league as well. So I apologize for that. I was just frustrated. You’re trying to kill three-on-five in the first period, and then another one, and then, you know, maybe you feel like you don’t get the calls you deserve throughout the game.”
Finally, seconds after the Wild did absolutely nothing with a power play of their own, Scheifele scored another softie on Wallstedt.
“I mean, Wally’s been really solid for us,” Hynes said. “I’m not going to get too much into him or any individuals tonight. I think it’s important that you don’t get too low. We’re a good hockey team. We’ve played good games. We’ve hit some adversity here, but that’s what happens. You’re going to be up. You’re going to be down. But the important thing is to stay levelheaded, make sure that we’re getting the right things out of these, and then we have to move forward, and now we have to look forward to a good road trip.”
Spacek makes NHL debut
With Jonas Brodin week to week with a lower-body injury, 22-year-old defenseman David Spacek made his NHL debut. The right-shot defenseman, who was paired with Hunt, played with his mother, Lenka, brother, Jacob, and girlfriend, Simona, in attendance. His father, longtime NHLer Jaroslav Spacek, couldn’t make the game.
“It’s awesome,” said David Spacek, the third No. 82 in Wild history. “I think they were looking towards this moment since I started playing hockey, I think, and it’s a big accomplishment for me and my family.”
time for a debut ⌛ pic.twitter.com/eHwrF8hzbm
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) January 16, 2026
Spacek, who has won a World Juniors silver medal and a World Championship gold medal, will represent Czechia in Milan next month at the Winter Olympics. He was an even plus-minus in 11:59 of ice time.
With Brodin hurt, Carson Lambos was recalled from AHL Iowa to provide an extra defenseman in case of illness or injury before Thursday’s game.
After the game, Hynes didn’t know exactly what lineup the Wild will take on the road. While it was anticipated Thursday morning that injured defenseman Zach Bogosian and center Joel Eriksson Ek were both nearing a return and would travel, Hynes said after the game that he suddenly wasn’t sure and things had changed since the morning “as usual.”
It was odd that Hynes even said Bogosian would travel because he didn’t skate Thursday morning during morning skate or beforehand with skating and skills coach Andy Ness. Eriksson Ek did skate with Ness and throughout the morning. The Wild badly need Eriksson Ek back; they’re 0-2-1 without him.