PHILADELPHIA — Asked about the Wild’s opponent on Thursday at Wells Fargo Arena, head coach Dean Evason gave a quick scouting report followed by a concise warning.

The Philadelphia Flyers, he said, were a lot like the Wild.

“They play an energetic, upbeat, pressure, physical game,” Evason said Thursday morning. “So, if we’re not ready, as we haven’t been. …”

It was a prescient observation.

The Wild came out with loose sticks and lead in their skates and chased the Flyers around the ice for most of two periods before briefly coming to life in a 6-2 loss, breathing more life into a trend that has haunted Minnesota (3-3-1) since opening night, when Brock Faber stanched the bleeding of a cold start in a 2-0 victory over Florida.

Minnesota rallied from three one-goal deficits to beat struggling Edmonton, 7-4, on Tuesday but goes into the second of back to backs Friday in Washington with losses in three of its past four games (1-2-1).

“We can’t continually get behind and expect to come back consistently,” Evason warned.

The Wild made a game of it in the third period, when Dakota Mermis and Marcus Foligno scored 85 seconds apart in the third period to make it 3-2. But after Kirill Kaprizov lost a puck, Owen Tippett got behind the defense and scored on a breakaway to make it 4-2 at 6:34.

Filip Gustavsson stopped 29 shots for the Wild.

Travis Konecny opened the scoring with a snap shot from the left circle, and Sean Couturier and Bobby Brink added power-play goals as Philadelphia took a 3-0 lead midway through the second period.

That seemed to impress upon the Wild the seriousness of the situation. Being outshot 22-5 at the time, they mounted a few long forechecks — their first of the game — and finally made goaltender Carter Hart work.

They still couldn’t find the back of the net, even after finishing the second period with a 1:39 of a power play, but finally beat Hart when Mermis corralled a loose puck that squirted out of a scrum and fired it near corner to make it 3-1 at 3:05. Foligno then finished a rush by lifting a pass from Marcus Johansson past Hart to make it 3-2 at 4:30.

But it was all downhill from there.

The Wild looked a step behind in the first period, getting outshot 12-4 and falling behind on a Konecny snap shot at 13:57. Former Wild blue liner Nick Seeler, skating hard out of his zone from behind his own net, left a pass for Konecny above the left circle, and the winger fired over Gustavsson’s left shoulder and into the high corner for a 1-0 lead.

Minnesota, meanwhile, was struggling to keep the puck out of its own zone.

The Wild had a golden chance to tie the score with 2:30 left in the first period when Mats Zuccarello stole a puck in the offensive zone, skated toward the net and passed to a rushing Ryan Hartman. The center had an open corner but misfired a one-timer on the team’s best chance of the period.

The Flyers (4-2-1) doubled their lead midway through the second period after Vinni Lettieri, with the Wild pinned in their zone, was called for holding. It took the Flyers 12 seconds to score, Couturier corralling a loose puck at the crease and sliding it into a corner for a 2-0 lead at 7:11.

Jake Middleton was quickly called for cross-checking on the Flyers’ next forecheck and Philadelphia made the Wild pay on Brink’s first NHL goal. After Couturier extricated the puck from the corner, he threw it back out to center ice, but it hit the skate of an on-ice official and it bounced right to Brink, a rookie from Minnetonka High School, who found himself alone in front of Gustavsson and quickly scored for a 3-0 lead.

Maple Grove took down White Bear Lake 2-1 in a Class 3A state girls quarterfinal showdown Thursday night in Edina.

The first half had its fair share of action. The Crimson struck first, taking the lead in the 21st minute thanks to a goal from freshman Jessica Lee. They then padded their lead just four minutes later after a strike from sophomore Kiera Gill.

White Bear Lake answered with a goal of its own with three minutes left in the half when junior Jenna Maloy found the back of the Crimson net. The Bears put themselves within striking distance entering the second half.

But there was a big change of pace after the break. Both teams played stifling defense, and neither got any good shots at the goal. As both teams held the other scoreless, the Crimson outlasted the Bears and held onto their one-goal advantage the rest of the game.

The win comes as a bit of an upset for Maple Grove, which was unseeded in the tournament with White Bear Lake being seeded third. Maple Grove coach Jean-Yves Viardin said that it was a team win, like all the other wins they’ve had.

“It’s about us, not any individual players,” Viardin said. “We had some girls taking themselves out in the second half. The deal was, if you’re tired and you feel like you can’t do your job, don’t stay out there. So they put out a great team effort, great team game. We don’t have any superstars. Everything we do is collective. And today, with the weather and everything, it was just a lot of hard work and sticking to the game plan.”

White Bear Lake coach John Dierkhising congratulated his team on a successful season, but was disappointed to see it come to an end.

“I think we were super excited to get here, and finally break through Section 4,” Dierkhising said. “We’ve had a lot of good teams the last seven or eight years who didn’t get to this point, just due to competition. I don’t know if we were happy with the way we executed tonight. I don’t think we played up to our standards, just overall, just little stuff here and there, stuff that we expect to see just wasn’t on tonight. Whether it was a missed read, or a bad pass, just wasn’t our night. It’s a real bummer, because that’s a good group of girls, they have a lot of talent.”

Maple Grove moves on to play Wayzata, which holds the No. 2 seed in the tournament. The two teams will face off at 10 a.m. on Halloween at U.S. Bank Stadium. Viardin said the team is excited to meet the challenge head on and use its same team approach as it prepares for the Trojans.

“It’s playoff time, baby,” he said. “Anyone can win.”

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The Bruins had their record-setting victory in their sights on Thursday at the Garden and booted it away.

Going for the franchise best 7-0 start, the B’s coughed up a two-goal lead late in the third period and then Mason McTavish scored at 2:52 of overtime to lose 4-3, suffering their first loss of the season in brutal fashion. They fell to 6-1.

The B’s appeared to be well on their way sealing their seventh win when Patrick Brown took holding penalty with 4:00 left and the Ducks pulled goalie John Gibson for a 6-on-4. The B’s had several chances to clear but failed and with 1:55 left in regulation, Leo Carlsson scored a 6-on-5 goal to cut the Bruin lead to a goal.

The B’s inability to clear the zone continued and Sam Carrick tied the game with 14.7 second left in regulation to make it 3-3.

As we’ve come to expect in the first game back after a long, successful road trip, the Bruins were pretty lifeless in the first period. The Ducks, meanwhile, looked like they were putting a wakeup call to good use. In their win in Columbus on Tuesday, Anaheim coach Greg Cronin benched star forward Trevor Zegras and, in the first period at he Garden, the Ducks were battling for every puck.

While the Ducks, who held a 9-6 shot advantage, had the better of the chances in the first, they took the lead at 15:00 of the first on a fortunate bounce. With Mason McTavish battling for position in the crease with Hampus Lindholm behind goalie Linus Ullmark, Radko Gudas threw the puck toward the net and it deflected home off Lindholm.

B’s coach Jim Montgomery, after a fair amount of debate on the bench, elected to challenge the play for goalie interference but the goal was upheld.

The B’s killed off the resulting penalty, their second of the period, and went into the break down a goal.

The B’s shook off the cobwebs in the second period and stormed to a 3-1 lead.

Rookie Matt Poitras, who came into the game with three goals in two games – including two in Anaheim – was predictably earning more attention. He was high-sticked in the first period on a play that wasn’t penalized. Then early in the second period, he was cross-checked by Jackson Lacomb. That one was called, and the B’s made the Ducks pay as their struggling power play got off the schneid.

After changing on for James van Riemsdyk, Charlie Coyle won a faceoff in the right circle and went to the net. He was at the top of the crease to redirect David Pastrnak’s fanned-on slapper attempt into the wide open net behind John Gibson at 1:41 for his first of the season. The teams were officially even on lucky bounces.

As things got chippy, Coyle and Frank Vatrano received matching crosscheck penalties and the B’s took the lead on the ensuing 4-on-4. Poitras made zig-zags along the left side of the offensive zone and got it up to Charlie McAvoy at the blue line. McAvoy fed Matt Grzelcyk in the right circle and his blast squeaked through Gibson’s pads for Grzelcyk’s first of the year at 3:01.

The B’s came close to extending the lead on a penalty kill when Patrick Brown fed John Beecher with an empty net but the rookie hit the post.

They did get the third goal with 3:20 left in the second. McAvoy rushed the puck through the neutral zone and, once he gained the blue line, dished it to Pastrnak on the left wing. Pastrnak took a shot that handcuffed Gibson and produced a succulent rebound. Pavel Zacha fouled off his swing but Pastrnak was able to swoop in and deposit his sixth of the year into the empty net.