MINNEAPOLIS — The preseason is not the regular season.
That became crystal clear after the Wild's opening-night performance.
Despite cruising through training camp with six wins in seven exhibition games, the Wild sputtered in their first real test, getting overpowered 7-3 by the Rangers on Thursday in front of 18,612 at Xcel Energy Center to temper the early enthusiasm.
Strengths of the Wild's over the past few weeks, such as the penalty kill and power play, didn't hold up against a battle-tested foe in New York, which had won its season opener two nights earlier.
The Rangers' Chris Kreider capitalized on the power play 4 minutes, 6 seconds into the first period with a backdoor tap-in. That lead ballooned to three by the end of the first, with Adam Fox scoring at 16:03 before Artemi Panarin flicked in a shot at 19:47.
After blanking on their first power play, the Wild converted on Try No. 2 at 7:45 of the second, a one-timer from Mats Zuccarello set up by Kirill Kaprizov.
But the Wild squandered that momentum by failing to take advantage of an ensuing 5-on-3 for 1:22.
Overall, the power play went 1-for-4 and the penalty kill 3-for-4.
With 3:06 to go in the second, New York's Filip Chytil put back a rebound before a back-and-forth third period.
Panarin stole the puck and found Vincent Trocheck at 4:18 for Panarin's fourth point of the night. Only 58 seconds later, Matt Boldy wired in a backhander and only 30 seconds after that, Kappo Kakko dumped the puck five-hole. Boldy later scored at 6:20 for his third career multi-goal game.
Marc-Andre Fleury finished with 27 saves, and Igor Shesterkin had 33 for the Rangers.
