Postgame Hat Trick: Avalanche 4, Wild 2

Wild.com's Dan Myers gives three takeaways from the Wild's 4-2 loss against the Colorado Avalanche at Pepsi Center in Denver on Saturday night:

1. The Landeskog - MacKinnon - Rantanen line showed again why it's one of the most dangerous in the NHL.
With the game tied at 2-2 in the closing moments of the second period, the trio entered the Wild zone on what looked like a rather innocent looking entry.
An accidental collision in front of goaltender Devan Dubnyk took everyone's eyes off the puck for just a moment, but that's all it took for MacKinnon to find Rantanen near the right circle and for Rantanen to quickly snap it over to Landeskog all alone near the left post for an easy tap in.
The Wild player involved in the incidental contact was Jonas Brodin, and with him down, Jared Spurgeon couldn't get back quick enough to body out Landeskog.
No doubt, a bad break for Minnesota, and it came at the worst possible time with the worst possible combination of Avalanche forwards on the ice.
That goal ended up being the difference in the game.
Colorado scored the first two goals of the game to grab a 2-0 lead. Wild coach Bruce Boudreau called timeout and rallied the troops.
It worked.
Minnesota got one back on a goal by Ryan Suter then tied the game in the second.

But once Colorado got the lead, it stepped up it's game defensively in the third period, limiting the Wild's quality scoring chances.
2. It's safe to say Matt Dumba has picked up right where he left off last season.
Let's go back to December of 2018. Dumba was 32 games into his season, and to that point, led all NHL defensemen with 12 goals on the season.
He sustained an injury on Dec. 15 and didn't play a game again for the rest of the season. Despite that, Dumba remained at or near the goal-scoring charts for blue liners for several weeks.
Fast forward to this season, and Dumba hasn't missed a beat.

He scored a power-play goal on Thursday night in Nashville then followed it up with yet another apparent goal in the second period on Saturday, whipping what looked like a nasty snap shot through a Zach Parise screen that tied the game at 2-2.
The goal was Dumba's for the rest of the period until a Zapruder-like review in the replay booth at intermission changed it to ol' No. 11.
Regardless of who got credit for the goal, Dumba has begun the season with a shooter's mentality and that's good news for the Wild moving forward.
3. When the puck dropped on the game on Saturday, Dubnyk made a little bit of history.
The appearance marked his 300th game in a Wild sweater, making him just the second goaltender in franchise history to reach 300 games.
In reaching the milestone, Dubnyk became the 15th active goaltender to play in 300 games with a single franchise.
Dubnyk still has a ways to go to reach Niklas Backstrom's team record of 409 games played between the posts, but Backstrom's number came over nine seasons with the club. Dubnyk has reached 300 in about 4 1/2 seasons.
Dubnyk's durability has been a hallmark since his arrival in Minnesota from Arizona in January of 2015. He's played in at least 60 games (and started at least 59) in each of his first full four seasons.