That’s what this result boils down to: an early stumble and a late blip.

Sean Couturier buried a rebound just 1 minute, 18 seconds into the first period, the first time the Wild didn’t open the scoring, and Eden Prairie’s Nick Seeler ran into the slot to empty the Flyers’ next shot uncontested at 3:51 to make.

But after falling into their first two-goal deficit – the Wild were down just 1.6% of their season entering the game – they were in control.

They rallied, took a lead in the third period and scored a third tying goal before Matt Boldy lost his stick, Philadelphia broke away for a 4-on-2 and Rasmus Ristolainen knocked a loose puck into the crease to make it 5-5 break. stalemate with 2:24 to go.

Couturier completed his hat trick into an empty net with 1 minute remaining, this after Mats Zuccarello had drawn a penalty but had it negated by a scrum that included the Flyers’ Garnet Hathaway. In the second, Hathaway punched Eriksson Ek, who suffered a broken nose earlier this month, in the face.