Portugal Colonial - NHL Wild fire Evason as coach after seventh loss in a row

The 59-year-old Canadian was in his fifth campaign as an NHL coach, all with the Wild, who were 5-10 with 4 overtime losses for 14 points and stood 14th in the 16-team Western Conference.

"Dean did an excellent job during his tenure with the Minnesota Wild," team general manager Bill Guerin said. "I'm very thankful for his hard work and dedication to our organization."

Also getting the axe a day after the Wild lost 4-1 to Detroit was assistant coach Bob Woods.

The Wild had lost five games in regulation time and twice in overtime in their futility streak.

"Seven in a row is unacceptable, especially with this group of guys," Minnesota forward Pat Maroon said after Sunday's loss.

No replacement or interim coach was named by the Wild, who take the ice next on Tuesday at home against St. Louis.

The Wild ranked second-worst in the NHL by allowing 3.95 goals a game and were last on the penalty kill with a 66.7% success rate.

Evason went 147-77 with 26 overtime losses after replacing Bruce Boudreau as Wild coach in February 2020.

The Wild reached the playoffs four times under Evason but lost in the first round every time. Minnesota has not won a playoff series since 2015, dropping their past eight consecutive playoff matchups.

A.Motta--PC