The Wild looks to stave off elimination tonight in Colorado and force a Game 6 in St. Paul on Friday night. Minnesota has clawed its way back from a 3-1 deficit twice in franchise history, both happening in 2003 against the Vancouver Canucks and the Colorado Avalanche. Minnesota last faced a 3-1 deficit in 2021 against Vegas and pushed the series it to a Game 7.
“You have to win one game. I mean we always knew we’d have to win one game in Colorado no matter what,” said Wild forward Marcus Foligno yesterday before the team left for Colorado. “It just takes one. We want to do our best to bring it back here for Game 6.”
While it’s a one game at a time mindset for Minnesota, it still has to win three in a row in order to win this series, something that only happened to Colorado twice during the regular season. If there is one silver lining the Wild can lean on, per The Athletic, Colorado has not closed out a series at home since 2008.
The Wild will lean heavily on its top defensive pairing in Brock Faber and Quinn Hughes, as those two have been excellent not only in this series but the entire playoffs. Per Stats Perform, Faber and Hughes are each averaging at least a point per game in this year’s playoffs. There have only been four defensive duos in NHL history to each average at least a point per game in a postseason run of at least 10 games. They are also the only two defensemen in franchise history to record at least 10 points in a single playoff run. (Faber, 4-6=10; Hughes, 4-10=14).
“We can play with this team, and we can beat this team,” said Faber yesterday. “We are going to need our absolute best for the next game.”
The Wild has proven it can not only hang with the Avalanche but can beat them as well, especially when they are playing their game. Minnesota had a 5-4 lead in the second period in Game 1, beat Colorado 5-1 in Game 3 and jumped out to an early lead in Game 4. If the Wild can compile three complete games it has a good chance to make history repeat itself, but it all starts tonight in Game 5.
