Wild bottled up by Devils as rough five-game road trip comes to an end

A forgettable five-game road trip for the Minnesota Wild came to a merciful end on Wednesday in Newark. The Wild were bottled up for much of the night in a 4-1 loss to the New Jersey Devils at the Prudential Center, marking their fourth defeat in five games over the course of this early-season trip.

The Devils (6-1-0) scored a goal in all three periods to take a 3-0 lead, and all the Wild (3-4-1) could muster in the final period was Matt Boldy's fifth goal of the season. A late empty-net goal from the Devils sealed the result. It's the sixth consecutive win for a New Jersey team that has scored at least three goals in all seven of its games to begin this season.

The Wild got off to a 2-1 start to this season after their shootout win over the Kings at home on Oct. 13, but they didn't have much luck away from St. Paul over the past nine days. They lost in Dallas, Washington, and Philadelphia, then pulled out a much-needed win over the Rangers on Monday before dropping this one in Newark.

The Devils set the tone with a strong first period where they out-shot the Wild 14-6. They were rewarded for their offensive zone time when Paul Cotter opened the scoring late in the period by putting one through Filip Gustavsson's five-hole.

Gustavsson stopped a breakaway from Devils star Jack Hughes in the second period, but Minnesota's deficit was doubled when defenseman Brendan Dillon scored on a long shot from the point not long after that. Making a guest appearance on the Wild's TV broadcast, general manager Bill Guerin said his team was playing a little "too cute" and spending too much time on the perimeter.

The Wild had a couple power plays in the second period but couldn't find a goal. They were also unsuccessful on a power play in the third. After an unbelievable start in that phase early this season, the Wild are now 0 for their last 11 on the PP. The Devils are 21 for 21 on the penalty kill during their six-game winning streak.

Wild coach John Hynes switched up his lines to begin the third, but it didn't make much of a difference. The Devils took a commanding 3-0 lead when they scored just three seconds into a power play after a David Jiricek penalty early in the period. It was the first career goal for New Jersey's Arseny Gritsyuk.

Boldy got the Wild on the board with nine minutes left on a slick top-shelf snipe, but that was all the scoring Minnesota could manage.