Wild reclaim their game, hand Avalanche 1st playoff loss

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- It started early, the Minnesota Wild on their game, skating well, playing physical, finding space, defending hard, and getting help with flashes of brilliance from goalie Jesper Wallstedt.

They killed a penalty, a minor miracle. Kirill Kaprizov sharply cut through the Colorado Avalanche defense for a 4-on-4 goal. Quinn Hughes scored a power-play goal against a stickless Scott Wedgewood. Ryan Hartman did too with a backhanded check swing.

On and on it went, the Wild finding the game they lost somewhere between the elation of a first-round series win to the start of the Western Conference Second Round in Denver earlier in the week.

A 5-1 win against the Colorado Avalanche in Game 3 at Grand Casino Arena put the Wild back into the best-of-7 series, halving the deficit to 2-1 with Game 4 looming in less than 48 hours, putting the losses in Denver, 9-6 and 5-2, fully in the rearview mirror.

"There's no excuses for the way we played (in Denver)," defenseman Brock Faber said. "It was a quick turnaround with an emotional series in Dallas and you know, we need to move on quicker, and I think we didn't bring our best in Colorado. Tonight was a lot better. Tonight was the way we play."

The Wild did everything they needed to do to win a game against the previously unbeaten in the Stanley Cup Playoffs Avalanche.

Their power play, which was 0-for-5 through the first two games and 2-for-26 in the past seven games, scored on its first two chances, with Hughes making it 2-0 at 16:44 of the first period and Hartman extending the lead to 3-0 at 4:23 of the second.

Their penalty kill, which has been a killer for the Wild all postseason, and especially in Game 2, when the Avalanche scored two power-play goals, was good enough.

The Wild still gave up a power-play goal for the ninth consecutive game, which is, by the way, every playoff game they've played, but they killed the first two they had to face. That allowed them to build a 3-0 lead before Nathan MacKinnon's power-play goal made it 3-1.

Oh, and Faber scored 20 seconds after MacKinnon to bring it up to 4-1.

"I mean, special teams are so important," Hughes said. "I felt like we weren't great in that aspect in the first series but we played so well 5-on-5 we just kind of got through there. But in this series we're going to have to be a little better on special teams. We got the personnel on the kill and guys who are ultra competitive and will do anything to keep it out of the net. Thought they did a great job there and hopefully get on a roll, and same thing with the power play. Privilege to be on there, you want to make a difference, and it was nice to be able to do that."

Kaprizov was dynamic, scoring Minnesota's first goal at 15:11 of the first period and assisting on the two power-play goals.

Faber also had a goal and two assists. Hughes had his goal and an assist on Kaprizov's goal.

Mats Zuccarello, arguably the biggest key to the Wild's power play with his distributing ability from the left-wing half-wall, assisted on both power-play goals. It was his shot from that spot on the wall that Hartman knocked into the net with a backhanded check swing.

Matt Boldy scored an empty-net goal, had five shots, and was huge on both the power play and PK.

"We have so many good players, and when they deliver, when they score and they started off hot right away, it creates momentum for the whole team," Wallstedt said. "And I think we fed off that the whole game."

Wallstedt did his part too.

He got the net back after ceding it to Filip Gustavsson in Game 2, and the puck found his pads all night long, thud after thud after thud, sometimes popping out but not into harm's way and other times sticking to him like his stomach was swallowing it whole.

It was, shall we say, far different for Wallstedt than Game 1, when he gave up eight goals on 42 shots.

He made 35 saves, sending the Wild's confidence to attack, to play with pace, soaring higher and higher with each one.

"I had no doubt he was going to be back, just kind of who he is and the reasons why we didn't play him in Game 2 was for the right reasons, and you see the result tonight," Hynes said. "He's a competitor. He's got confidence. He's been very solid and I just thought he got right back to his game tonight."

The Wild didn't sit on the lead in the third period with a prevent defense. They attacked and had shifts, pretty much every time Hughes and Faber were on the ice, where it looked like they were playing a game of keep away, players rotating, the puck moving high to low, low to high.

Yes, they were looking to score, and they funneled the puck to the slot a handful of times, but most importantly with a 4-1 lead they had the Avalanche chasing all over the defensive zone, tiring them out so they had no gas left to attack.

"They're a dangerous group offensively and the best defense is holding onto the puck in the offensive zone and trying to extend the lead," Hartman said. "We put the pressure on there in the third."

It was everything the Wild needed to get back into the series, everything they were talking about for the past three days, about how a reset with some necessary tweaks would be good for them.

It was the Wild playing like the Wild.

"As I said to you guys over the last couple of days, there's lots of things we did like in the first couple of games we just didn't get rewarded for it and tonight we were able to do that," Hynes said. “Hard-fought game, both teams were extremely competitive, but it's more indicative of that's the style of game that gives us the best chance to win."