Wednesday night's regular season clash had a lot on the line for both Central-Division foes. For the Avalanche (94 points) - who have been chipping away at the standings - the game meant a chance to overtake the top spot in the division from the Wild (95 points) with a victory, while the Wild sought to hold on to their current top rank.
And with the matchup staged for a hard-fought battle between the fierce division rivals, it delivered.
To their credit, the Wild played a stingy game, limited Colorado's zone entries and fiercely clogged up shooting lanes and limited any netfront traffic for the Avalanche. Despite a pesky performance, Colorado was outmuscled against the heavy Wild, was relatively unable to solve Gustavsson - was sharp and benefitted from the Avalanche hitting a few posts - and the loss of the special teams battle (power play was 0-for-4 and the Avalanche relinquished a shorthanded goal against) proved costly.
"It's a game of mistakes and we made some big ones and they capitalized on them," Avalanche Head Coach Jared Bednar said following the loss. "So that turns out for me to be the difference in the hockey game. For them, from the start they were more competitive. I felt like we had some passengers for the first period plus and when you play in a game like this and a playoff style, you can't have passengers. I thought we had some of those guys get going in the third period. And I don't want to put the whole group in that because I thought we had some guys who played their butts off. But you know, when you're banged up a little bit, you're going through it and you're playing 15 games and 26 days and you get a chance to play at home to win the division, I would have liked to see our whole team engaged right away. And I don't think that our whole team was engaged."
From the get-go it was an eventful and spirited contest between the Avalanche and Wild, who were tied 11-11 in shots after one period of play.
Minnesota drew the game's first strike just 3:24 into play and clenched a 2-1 lead heading into the first intermission, which ended with both teams sharing some exchanges heading into the dressing room.
Both of the Wild's goals - which bookended the opening frame - were scored off somewhat fluky defensive mishaps by the Avalanche.
The first occurred as Georgiev was behind his cage and attempted to rim a pass along the boards with his backhand. As he did so, Johansson pinched along the wall and grabbed possession of the puck where he cycled it out to the point to Matt Dumba. The defenseman quickly shot a pass down to the net front to Eriksson Ek who sent a slick between the legs pass to the backdoor back to Johansson for the team's 1-0 icebreaker.
Tensions erupted shortly after Minnesota's opening strike which staged an opportunity for Colorado to - successfully - procure their first equalizer. The Avalanche first received a power play at 5:28. While that man advantage attempt was unsuccessful they made the most of some hairy circumstances that followed.
The Avalanche and Wild then exchanged three penalties, two of which were from the Avalanche's Byram for hooking at 8:34 and Eller for high-sticking at 9:37, which negated a 4v4 for Colorado after Eriksson Ek had been assessed with interference at 9:12.
Colorado's penalty kill came up with a clutch performance and as Georgiev made a sensational stop, Byram's penalty expired and J.T. Compher sprung him for a breakaway as the blueliner exited the box. Byram turned on the jets, picked up the puck at the right wall, and fired a blistering low shot past Gustavsson to tie the score 1-1 at 10:43 - which erupted the atmosphere at Ball Arena. Byram's tally marked the third-straight game in which 21-year-old Byram found the back of the net.
