Shorthanded Wild overcomes adversity in win over Avalanche

ST. PAUL -- ESPN broadcaster Kenny Mayne had a popular catchphrase he often coined on SportsCenter involving underdog teams that would find ways to win games.
"Games aren't played on paper," he'd say. "They're played inside TV sets."
Well, with an almost empty Xcel Energy Center serving as a background, the Wild -- minus a host of lineup regulars because of injury or illness -- outclassed just 24 hours in this same building, found a way to take two points from the Colorado Avalanche, winning 4-3 on a Jonas Brodin goal 18 seconds into overtime.

"We talked to the group, our keys were to grind, to play smart, which meant stay out of the box ... we wanted to play fast. They are a real fast team. But we can play fast," said Wild coach Dean Evason. "We didn't play like we wanted to play the other night. But tonight we did. We played with pace. When I say fast, we moved the puck fast, we got it in, and got in and worked back. We played fast tonight and it obviously showed."

Minnesota's 5-1 loss on Saturday was made worse by in-game injuries to Marcus Johansson and Matt Dumba, the latter of whom, was placed on injured reserve on Sunday, meaning he'll miss a minimum of three games.
The Wild then learned on Sunday morning that Marcus Foligno had been placed into COVID-19 protocol and would be unavailable for at least the next several days.
That meant a flurry of new players added to the roster, as Gerry Mayhew, Luke Johnson and Kyle Rau were each summoned from the taxi squad. None of the three had played in a competitive game since they skated for Iowa before COVID shut down the American Hockey League season in March.
All against a Colorado team picked by some to win -- or at least compete -- for a Stanley Cup this season.
Not an easy spot to step into.

"I thought it would be very difficult," said Wild defenseman Ryan Suter. "I thought they played well. They kept it simple. They were physical. They were skating and I thought they played a really solid game for us and it was a big part of us winning today."
Evason practically guaranteed before the game that the Wild would, at the very least, show more gusto than it did in its loss to the Avs on Saturday night. And it was clear early on that Minnesota would be more competitive.
Even so, Colorado scored first on a goal by Joonas Donskoi 4:33 into the game, the Avs' first shot on goal and the first seen by Wild goaltender Cam Talbot, who returned after missing the past nine days with a lower-body injury.
"To jump in and have that happen in the first few minutes wasn't ideal," Talbot said. "But I thought I settled in after that and made some big saves when I needed to and the guys bailed me out a couple of times tonight too. Something to definitely build off of."

Perhaps the biggest of the night came a few minutes later when Nathan MacKinnon had the puck on his blade and a yawning cage in front of him, only to have Talbot sprawl to deny the Avs sniper with a beautiful glove save.
It was a potential turning point in the game.

Jordan Greenway would score at 16:19 and the Wild went into the first intermission tied and with some newfound confidence.
"If that one goes in, it's 2-nothing on the first two or three shots really. That would have been a tough hole to dig out ourselves out of," Talbot said. "You can't give that team any more goals than they need because they can pretty much score at will out there. Any time you can come up with a big save like that, you keep the game within reach early, that's all I was trying to do."

Just 88 seconds into the second period, the Wild grabbed the lead on the first of two goals by Victor Rask, who took a great cross-zone feed from Jared Spurgeon and whistled a shot under the crossbar for his first since Opening Night.
Colorado would score the next two, one 2:03 after Rask's first and another 7:09 into the third period. But Rask would answer again, this time firing a Kirill Kaprizov shot that had banked right to him off a skate in the high slot through traffic, tying the game with 7:26 left in regulation.

"It definitely felt good for the confidence," Rask said. "First goal was obviously a really good pass from Spurgy, open net so it wasn't that hard, but it was nice to get that one. Second one, I just tried to get on net and luckily it went in."
When the horn sounded at the end of regulation, it seemed like a quality, hard-fought point for a shorthanded roster. But the Wild wasn't done.
Brodin's one-timer was his first career overtime winner and came after a nice play by Greenway, who sped around a forward defending and charged towards the goal, which forced a defenseman to leave his area near the front of the cage.
That left Brodin all alone in the slot and Greenway didn't miss with a perfect set-up pass right on the tape.

"I just was trying to find a spot for Greeny to pass to me, and I saw the lane and then I was just trying to shoot it as hard as I could," Brodin said. "And then luckily it went in, so that was just nice to finally get the first OT goal for me. So that was good."
With two games remaining in a stretch of four games against the Avalanche, Sunday's game served as a critical reminder that on any given night in the NHL, any team -- no matter how many players it might be down -- is capable of winning.
And in a season where teams will continually be playing consecutive games against one another, it proved just how elusive a two-game sweep will be.
"You might have a bad showing every once in a while, but you gotta get back on the horse there and be ready to go," Suter said. "I think on any given night, any team can win. You have to have your A-game, especially when you're playing every other day or back-to-back like we just did. It's definitely going to be a mental game as much as a physical game and I thought we rebounded well. Now we gotta throw that one out and be ready for the next one."
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