After falling behind 3-0 in the game’s first five minutes, the Wild lost to Utah 6-2 on Saturday at Grand Casino Arena. It was their fourth loss in five games, dropping them to 3-5-1 this season.

Is it too early to be worried?

“Yeah, it’s too early for that,” said defenseman Brock Faber, who was on the ice for two goals Saturday. The first was a Nick Schmaltz shot that deflected off his skate and past Filip Gustavsson for a 3-0 Mammoth lead.

Faber — a former Gophers star who has been among the NHL best blue liners since his rookie season in 2023-24 — had a few chances for goals or assists on Saturday but still has no points and is a minus-5 in nine games.

After Saturday’s loss, he was his own worst critic.

“So frustrating,” he said. “I mean, I’m better than this. I know I am. I thought I had opportunities to play a solid game and I just gotta kind of go back to square one. I gotta defend better. I gotta limit my turnovers and I gotta let the game come to me. I think everyone’s got their own thing that they need to do better and for me specifically, that’s what I need to do right now to help this team get out of this.”

Faber isn’t alone, of course. Marcus Foligno had a whopping nine hits on Saturday — the Wild outhit Utah 32-12 — but has no points this season. Veteran Vladimir Tarasenko, acquired in a trade with Detroit, has one goal and five points. Team captain Jared Spurgeon has one point and, after Saturday, is a minus-9 in nine games.

The Wild have five more games in this home stand to make some hay after going 1-3-1 on their last road trip. On Friday, head coach John Hynes said the Wild have played well at times but rarely for long stretches. They need to be better, he said, at the point of attack, on either side of the puck — winning draws, on the boards and in the corners. More physical, too.

The Mammoth’s second goal came on the third whack by former Gophers star Logan Cooley, unperturbed at the crease until he made it 2-0.

“That’s a big part of it, where you’re able to get physical in certain areas,” Hynes said. “It could be on a rush coming into the zone, finishing guys, coming in on arrivals, closing hard in those areas. So, that’s certainly something that can be better.”

The Wild know first-hand what good and bad starts can do for an NHL team. Two seasons ago, they started 5-10-4, got Dean Evason fired and, despite an initial rebound under Hynes, never held a playoff position.

Last year, the Wild earned points in 10 of their first 12 games and led the NHL with a 17-4-4 record on Dec. 4. That start helped them survive major injuries to Kirill Kaprizov and Joel Eriksson Ek and barely squeeze into the postseason with an overtime point in their last regular-season game.

The NHL’s three-point system for determining the standings makes digging out of a hole difficult, and establishing — or falling into — a pattern early can make a big difference.

The Wild have a quick opportunity to turn it around with a 5 p.m. puck drop against San Jose today at Grand Casino Arena.

“It’s a quick turnaround here, so it’s on to the next,” Faber said. “We need two points tomorrow. We need them badly. Turn this thing around. That was our ninth game. We’ve gotta long way to go, and (need to) be a lot better.”