STOCKHOLM — The Wild flew across the Atlantic Ocean looking for four points. They left with half of that. That’s one way to look at their two games in the NHL Global Series.

“We came here for the results, and that’s all that matters,” defenseman Marcus Johansson said. “We didn’t get the results we wanted.”

No, they didn’t.

The Wild lost Sunday’s game to the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-3 in overtime in the final game at Avicii Arena in Stockholm after William Nylander took the puck coast to coast and beat Johansson and then goalie Marc-Andre Fleury.

But the other way to look at it, a more positive spin that some of his teammates projected after the game, is that those two points very easily could have been one had the Wild not clawed their way back from a two-goal deficit Sunday with some solid play in the third period, or could have easily been four.

In less than three minutes, the Wild (5-8-4) erased a 3-1 deficit in the third period, using goals from defenseman Jake Middleton and forward Mats Zuccarello to do so.

“They came pretty hard at us. I thought we weathered the storm for the most of it,” Fleury said. I loved the way we battled back in the game. We played the second and third … played very well. Just disappointing to come up on the short end there.”

The loss is the Wild’s fifth straight, though they earned a point in each of their games abroad, falling a day earlier in a shootout to the Ottawa Senators.

Both losses came after the Wild had struck first. Sunday, they did so within the first few minutes of the game with defenseman Jon Merrill putting the puck in the net just 2:37 in. But a promising start was followed by 15 minutes to end the first period that coach Dean Evason described as “very poor.”

The Maple Leafs (10-5-2) scored a pair of goals in those 15 minutes, with the Wild surrendering yet another goal on the penalty kill. That one, from star Auston Matthews, tied the score at the time and towards the end of the period, former Gophers forward Matthew Knies scored to give Toronto a lead.

Fleury allowed the Maple Leafs’ third goal of the game 4:22 into the third period, before Middleton and Zuccarello each scored to tie the game and eventually send it to overtime, where the Wild were unable to capitalize on their chances.

“Overtime, we had golden looks and we just, for whatever reason, aren’t scoring right now,” Evason said. “… We have the puck in great spots and we miss the net by a couple of margins. We outshoot them, we probably out-chanced them, we probably do a lot of really good things in that hockey game but don’t get rewarded, but our belief has to be positive that it is going to turn around.”

After one Swede, Wild forward Joel Eriksson Ek, had an opportunity to be the overtime hero in his home country, but was unable to convert, it ended up being another Swede who scored the game-winner, to the delight of much of the crowd at Avicii Arena.

“I thought I had him on the outside enough, but he’s a very skilled player,” Johansson said. “He got a little bit of room and that was enough. Frustrating.”

Indeed, it was a frustrating trip for the Wild, who came so close to leaving town with a pair of wins but just couldn’t finish.

“We’ve got a lot of good things to take away from this trip. Came together as a team, had some fun off the ice and at the same time we found our game a little bit on the ice, and that’s exactly what we came here to do. We could have easily had four points.”

Related Articles

Despite loss, Wild goalie Filip Gustavsson returns to form in return to homeland

Wild see improvement but suffer shootout loss to Senators in Sweden

‘It’s what you dreamt of’: Wild goalie Filip Gustavsson ready for game back home in Sweden

It’s a business trip, but Wild’s Swedes soaking up trip home

Wild, including Kirill Kaprizov, return to the ice in Sweden