"Riding a three-game winning streak and back home in front of the biggest crowd of the season, the Wild had a prime opportunity to build on the momentum they've patched together over the past week and a half. Instead, they laid an egg. Sunday's 4-1 loss to the Detroit Red Wings in front of 19,227 at Xcel Energy Center was worse than the score would indicate, because it seemed to confirm to a frustrated fan base that the team isn't ready to put something real together. "Tonight was a step back," center Kyle Brodziak said. "We weren't good, basically the whole game." Which is why the Wild were booed off the ice as they went to the dressing room after the second period trailing 4-0, outshot 22-9. "We're frustrated," center Matt Cullen said. "We've been playing some great hockey, and then to take a step back like that — especially in front of such a great crowd — it's fair game. We should have probably been booing ourselves because we weren't playing well." Henrik Zetterberg started the scoring during an early offensive flurry, taking a rebound and shooting off Niklas Backstrom's back for a ricochet goal 4:48 into the first period. Less than four minutes later, Dan Cleary fired a slap shot from the goal line that found a hole between Backstrom's skate and the post for a 2-0 lead. The second goal came after Brodziak turned the puck over in his zone with a weak pass, though he was not alone in his carelessness. "I think that kind of sucked the life out of us," Cullen said. "That's not where we want to be, and not the way we want to play. That's the bottom line." Kris Draper deflected a Niklas Kronwall shot from the blue line at 5:30 of the second period, and Tomas Holmstrom knocked a rebound off Cullen's skate on a power play at 13:50 for a 4-0 lead. Brent Burns scored a power-play goal with 3:40 left in regulation to ruin the shutout for Jimmy Howard, who needed only 16 saves for victory. " Read more: http://www.twincities.com/wild/ci_16948003?nclick_check=1
