The Wild Warmup is presented by Bryant Heating and Cooling
The Wild and Colorado Avalanche will continue their stretch of games against one another on Tuesday night when they play at Ball Arena in Denver.
Tuesday's game marks the third of four consecutive games between long-time rivals, after each team won once at Xcel Energy Center over the weekend.
Minnesota is coming off a 4-3 overtime victory on Sunday night. Jonas Brodin scored 18 seconds into overtime on an assist from Jordan Greenway, who extended his point streak to four games earlier in the night when he scored a goal himself.
Victor Rask had two goals and Joel Eriksson Ek continued his hot start with two assists.
The Wild won the game despite several notable names missing from the lineup, a fact that isn't going to change ahead of Tuesday night's contest.
Defenseman Matt Dumba was placed on injured reserve on Sunday and will miss at least the next two games. Wild coach Dean Evason said postgame on Sunday that he didn't believe Marcus Johansson would make the trip west either.
Neither did forward Marcus Foligno, who remains on the COVID-19 protocol list.
That provided opportunities for Gerry Mayhew, Luke Johnson and Kyle Rau, each of whom made their season debuts on Sunday night. It marked their first game of any kind since last March, when they played for the Iowa Wild in Grand Rapids in the hours before COVID shut down the season.
"What we liked about all three of them was how physical they were," Evason said after the game on Sunday. "I think you saw every one of them engaged in a physical confrontation real early, and that says a lot to the group that they're not out there just being tentative, boy, it's my first NHL game. They've all played NHL games but the first this year and it's just dipping your toe in. They didn't dip their toes in. They finished checks right away. They were on top of the puck and we played everybody."
Minnesota did not practice on Monday before heading to the airport and flying to Denver.
Colorado sustained a critical injury of its own on Sunday when Nathan MacKinnon left the game at the start of the third period and did not return.
The Avalanche also did not practice on Monday, but it's believed MacKinnon's lower-body injury will keep him out of each of the next two games, at a minimum.
MacKinnon assisted on each of Colorado's first two goals on Sunday and leads the Avalanche with 12 assists and 14 points.
Minnesota's Cam Talbot made his first start in nine days on Sunday and was stellar, finishing with 22 saves to improve to 3-1-0 with a 2.49 goals-against average and a .916 save percentage.
Philipp Grubauer is expected to start for Colorado. He's been outstanding this season, posting a 6-2-0 record, a 1.75 goals against and a .930 save percentage.
