With their penalty-kill numbers among the worst in the NHL, despite their stellar start, the Wild talked about the need to avoid the penalty box as a key to keeping pace with Edmonton’s explosive offense in advance of their Thursday night showdown. It was a solid plan, which went awry almost immediately, as the Oilers scored a pair of man-advantage goals and another shorthanded, handing the Wild one of their worst losses of the season. Star forward Leon Draisaitl scored his NHL-best 21st goal and set up three others in the Oilers’ 7-1 romp, snapping a streak of seven straight Minnesota wins versus Edmonton. A first period power-play goal by Freddie Gaudreau provided about the only opportunity for the crowd to welcome the Wild back to Minnesota for the opener of a lengthy homestand, after they had won two of three on their most recent road trip. “You got to take it with a grain of salt, right? It’s one of those things where you hate when those nights happen, and you want to avoid those nights,” said Wild defenseman Brock Faber, who set up their only goal. “But now it’s accepting and learning from it, and, again, still staying confident in our game and who we are as a team. We’re playing good hockey, we’re battling, we have a chance every night. And tonight was our first one where it was just frustrating all around.” Filip Gustavsson had 21 saves for the Wild in the opening 40 minutes, falling to 14-5-3 as their goalie of record this season. Marc-Andre Fleury finished the game, stopping seven shots in the third period. The Wild’s defensive corps took a loss in the opening minutes of the game when Jake Middleton blocked an Edmonton shot and headed down the tunnel to the locker room. He did not return, and was officially ruled out with an upper body injury. His absence, added to an injury list that already includes forwards Joel Eriksson Ek and Mats Zuccarello, and veteran defenseman Jonas Brodin, turned out to be a notable blow for the Wild. “I think with those guys being out and then Middsy going out the first 37 seconds, it changes the dynamic, obviously,” coach John Hynes said. “You’re basically playing five D for the whole game. But we didn’t…it wasn’t a good night for us, whether with Middsy’s injury or how we played or whatever it might be. That’s what it was.” Then things got more challenging for the home club, as Matt Boldy was whistled for tripping and Edmonton’s power play needed just five seconds to take the lead, via a Zach Hyman tap-in set up by Draisaitl. It also marked a point of some growing concern for the Wild, who surrendered a pair of power-play goals in their shootout win at Utah on Tuesday. At the team’s Thursday morning skate, Hynes said staying out of the penalty box would be their first priority versus Edmonton, only to see the visitors score early with a man advantage. The Wild took four minor penalties in the game, and forward Jakub Lauko served a five-minute major for fighting in the opening period. Draisaitl set up a Kasperi Kapanen goal later in the first to double the visitors’ lead. But the Wild made their first power play count, controlling the play for nearly the full two minutes and getting on the board when Brock Faber rifled a shot through a crowd from the blue line. It was tipped in by Freddie Gaudreau, snapping a string of four straight games in which Minnesota had been held scoreless in the opening period. The Wild got another power play early in the second, but this one was notably less effective, as Edmonton scored a shorthanded goal to re-establish a two-goal lead. When Ryan Nugent-Hopkins popped a rebound past Gustavsson on a power play later in the period, it became clear that the visitors were in complete control — a fact underscored when Draisaitl chipped a puck in for a 5-1 lead after 40 minutes, prompting Hynes to change goalies during a game for the first time this season. Edmonton goalie Calvin Pickard finished with 29 saves as the Oilers won for the seventh time in their past eight games. His best effort might have been a point-blank pad save on Kirill Kaprizov early in the third as the Wild made one last desperate, and ultimately fruitless, push. Instead, the Oilers added two more on tipped pucks in the final period to add an exclamation point to the blowout. “Obviously, it hasn’t been the friendliest place to play for us, but we’ve been playing some really good hockey of late,” Hyman said. ” So we carried that into tonight and played one of our most complete games for 60 minutes against a team that had the best record in the league, and they’re a really good defensive team.” The loss, coupled with the point Winnipeg got from an overtime loss to Vegas on Thursday, moved the Jets ahead of Minnesota and into first place in the Western Conference. Thursday’s game was the first of a five-game Wild homestand. They next host Philadelphia at 1 p.m. on Saturday. 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