Wild’s Ryan Hartman gets real on ‘mental mistakes’ in brutal Flyers loss

The Minnesota Wild held a 3-1 lead over the Philadelphia Flyers in the third period on Friday night. However, Minnesota failed to see out the game. Philadelphia stormed back, forced overtime, and eventually won thanks to Joel Farabee’s second goal of the game. After the loss, forward Ryan Hartman addressed the media.

The Wild forward believes his team played a good game of hockey on Friday. That said, they can’t continue to lose games like that. “We’ve got to find ways to win those games. We’ve got to be better,” Hartman said, via NHL.com.

Hartman also provided his perspective on why Minnesota lost to the Flyers. “I think we sat back a little bit and caused some mental mistakes and we should have been trying to get, you know, four or five goals there instead of trying to keep the puck out of our net,” the Wild forward explained, via NHL.com.

Ryan Hartman, Wild collapse vs. Flyers as Marc-Andre Fleury is denied

A win for the Wild would have seen future Hall of Fame goalie Marc-Andre Fleury win his 551st career game. He would have moved into second place all-time for wins by NHL goaltenders. Instead, the Wild collapsed.

Ryan Hartman gave the Wild the lead early in the third period. A few minutes later, the Minnesota forward provided a secondary assist on Matt Boldy’s 15th goal of this season. They held a 3-1 lead in front of their home fans and looked poised to win.

However, Tyson Foerster scored around the halfway point in the third. And less than 90 seconds later, Owen Tippett tied the game. The Flyers stormed back to force overtime Friday night. In the extra frame, Joel Farabee scored his second goal of the game by tipping a shot from the point.

The Wild have now lost three in a row. Furthermore, they have lost seven of their last eight games. Minnesota sits in seventh place in the Central Division as they continue through what has been a disappointing season. They take the ice again on Saturday against the Arizona Coyotes hoping to get back in the win column.