3 least impressive Minnesota Wild players from 4-1 loss to Vegas Golden Knights feat. Devin Shore

The Minnesota Wild entered Sunday night's game in Sin City against the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena on a hot streak, having won four of their previous five games.

Meanwhile, the host Golden Knights were trying to get back in the win column after consecutive regulation losses to teams from the Empire State—the New York Islanders and New York Rangers.

However, it was the Golden Knights who broke out of their funk and sent the fans home happy, winning 4-1 to improve to 29-11-3. The Wild fell to 27-13-4.

Ryan Hartman's 12th goal of the season opened the scoring, helping Minnesota carry a 1-0 lead into the first intermission.

Vegas responded in the second period as Pavel Dorofeyev scored on the power play. It was his 15th goal of the season. Both teams were tied 1-1 after 40 minutes, setting up a tense third period.

The Golden Knights pulled away in the third period with goals from Keegan Kolesar, Tomas Hertl, and Dorofeyev, who scored his second of the night.

Adin Hill wasn’t overly busy for Vegas but made the saves he needed to, turning aside 15 of the 16 shots he faced. Filip Gustafsson did what he could for the Wild, but he surrendered four goals on 37 shots.

3 least impressive Minnesota Wild players from 4-1 loss to Vegas Golden Knights

#1. Devin Shore

Recently called up by the Wild from their American Hockey League affiliate, the Iowa Wild, Shore didn’t have his best defensive performance on Sunday night.

He was behind the play at the time of Dorofeyev's first goal and finished with a minus-2 rating. Shore also took a trip to the penalty box for tripping.

#2. Marat Khusnutdinov

The 22-year-old Russian forward is still adjusting to the NHL, but like Shore, he finished with a minus-2 rating against the Golden Knights. He was caught out of position on two Vegas goals and didn’t contribute offensively for the Wild.

#3. Joel Eriksson Ek

One of Minnesota's veteran forwards, Eriksson Ek hasn’t matched his 30-goal pace from the 2024-25 season. Against the Golden Knights, he didn’t register a single shot on goal.

With key players out of the lineup, Eriksson Ek is someone the Wild needed to step up, but he failed to deliver on Sunday.