The Associated Press

The NHL’s road warriors met their match at the home of an expansion team.

Monday, February 19, 2001

The NHL’s road warriors met their match at the home of an expansion team.

The San Jose Sharks lost for the first time in 11 road games when they were beaten by the first-year Minnesota Wild 3-1 Sunday.

Not only were the Sharks undefeated since the All-Star break (3-0-2), the Pacific-Division leaders went a team-record 152 minutes, 53 seconds before Minnesota’s Antti Laaksonen tied the game at 1 at 9:59 of the second period.

San Jose last lost on the road Dec. 23 at Buffalo, covering a league-best 10-game stretch (6-0-4). The Sharks had won three straight, and allowed only three goals in the previous five games.

The Sharks were penalized a season-high 11 times, eight while holding the Wild scoreless in the first period. They were coming off the first back-to-back shutouts in franchise history and looked like they might be headed for a third by killing five penalties during the period.

"We can’t expect to win in any building playing short-handed that much," the Sharks’ Gary Suter said.

Laaksonen beat Steve Shields with a slap shot in the second period for the first goal against the Sharks since Chicago’s Steve Sullivan scored short-handed on Feb. 10.

"After that first goal, the difference was black and white," Wild coach Jacques Lemaire said.

Scott Pellerin scored the Wild’s first power-play goal in six games to give Minnesota a 2-1 lead.

"That blew the whole house up," said Wild goalie Manny Fernandez, who had 27 saves. "When the guys get goose bumps, that means a lot. From there on, it seemed like the game was easier to play."

Sylvain Blouin finished the scoring in the third period with his first career goal.

The Wild also have victories over the Pittsburgh Penguins and Dallas Stars in their last five games, and their schedule doesn’t get any easier. Sunday’s game was the first in a 10-game stretch against teams that are among the top eight in the Western Conference.

Minnesota plays 16 games in March, more than any other month.

"Every guy in this room, the first thing they saw on our schedule was March," Fernandez said. "You have to go through that. If you play well defensively, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t get through that.