Wild penalty kill 'has to shape up' heading to Game 3 against Avalanche

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Matt Boldy spoke the truth about the Minnesota Wild's penalty kill.

"It's a big topic of discussion," the forward said Friday. 

It certainly is in need of repair before the Wild skate against the Colorado Avalanche in Game 3 of the Western Conference Second Round at Grand Casino Arena on Saturday (9 p.m. ET; HBO MAX, truTV, TNT, SN1, SN, TVAS, CBC).

Colorado leads the best-of-7 series 2-0 after 9-6 and 5-2 wins in Games 1 and 2 at home. The Avalanche are 3-for-7 on the power play, including 2-for-5 in Game 2 on Tuesday.

"We know, it's not a surprise to us," Boldy said about Minnesota's issues when short-handed. "Obviously, you saw it today, we were working on it. That's what you do, you go back to work. You go back to the drawing board and make changes."

The Wild have been dealing with a lot since advancing out of the first round for the first time in 11 years, including a goaltending controversy created by starting Filip Gustavsson over Jesper Wallstedt in Game 2, injuries to No. 1 center Joel Eriksson Ek and Jonas Brodin, arguably their top shutdown defenseman, and a struggling power play.

It's not yet clear who will be the starter in Game 3: Gustavsson after giving up four goals on 22 shots in Game 2 or Wallstedt after allowing eight on 42 shots in Game 1. Minnesota coach John Hynes said he knows who it will be, but the goalies hadn't been told when he met with the media Friday.

Eriksson Ek (lower body) skated Friday for the first time since the start of the second round and is likely to be a game-time decision, Hynes said. Brodin (lower body) will remain out for Game 3 and miss his fourth consecutive game.

The Wild power play is 0-for-5 in the series and 2-for-26 since Game 2 of the first round against the Dallas Stars.

"Our power play is too good to not get hot here for at least a little bit, I think," Boldy said.

That would be great for Minnesota, but by far the most pressing of their issues is figuring out the penalty kill. 

"It's really the deciding thing right now in the series for us," forward Marcus Foligno said. "We feel confident with our game, but the penalty kill has to shape up here."

It has been an ongoing issue for the Wild, though their penalty kill ranked fifth in the NHL (82.5 percent) from Christmas through the end of the regular season. 

They were 60.0 percent on the PK in the first round against Dallas. The Wild won that series because they dominated at 5-on-5 and Wallstedt was outstanding with a 2.05 goals-against average and .924 save percentage.

Minnesota managed to be even on the PK in Game 1 against Colorado despite the Avalanche scoring on one of their two power plays. Foligno scored a short-handed goal, matching Artturi Lehkonen's power-play goal.

But the unit went south again in Game 2, with Colorado getting two power-play goals; forward Gabriel Landeskog had one in the first period that gave the Avalanche a 2-1 lead and center Nathan MacKinnon's in the third extended it to 4-1.

Landeskog scored on a one-timer from the slot with all kinds of space because no one rotated to him. MacKinnon scored with a one-timer from the left face-off circle because the Wild lost him on the in-zone set and couldn't find him in time.

"I just think there's some reads that I think we need to make that are communication errors, who is going at what time," Minnesota forward Nick Foligno said. "We know it's a big moment when a penalty kill comes up. We're a proud group and I think sometimes you overdo it. You can almost put yourself out of position because you're thinking about so many other things. … That's kind of what I've seen, it's been almost an overthought in some instances where we don't need to go at those times and they've capitalized."

It's more than the in-zone reads and lost battles on loose pucks. 

The Wild are winning 63.6 percent of the face-offs when short-handed against the Avalanche after they won 37.5 percent against the Stars, but once they clear the puck down the ice, they're giving Colorado, with its double drop pass and elite talent rushing up the ice, space to enter the offensive zone with pace.

"We talked about that," Nick Foligno said. "That has to be an area we can stifle them a little bit. You take away a team's ability to break in and now they have to go down the ice three or four times, and now they're tired and they're not really executing as well as they need to."

Once in zone, the Avalanche are zipping the puck around, getting the Wild to chase, to do what Marcus Foligno called "bonehead stuff," which is never good when you're already a man short.

"There's a good amount of things that we needed to clean up," Minnesota defenseman Brock Faber said. "I think there's things in our rotations, things in our stand that weren't detailed enough and weren't consistent enough and weren't really drilled into everyone's head what exactly their job is. We've struggled at times with the PK in the past few years here, but we were top-five from January on. We were confident coming in. Things fall apart. Things change. 

"I think we built a lot of confidence back up today in what our roles are, what we need to do and committing to that. We need it to change in order to turn this series around."