The Minnesota Wild are one loss away from ending their season. The Colorado Avalanche scored four times in the third period Monday night and left Grand Casino Arena with a 5-2 victory in Game 4 of the Western Conference Second Round series.
Parker Kelly scored with 7:28 remaining to snap a 2-2 tie. Nathan MacKinnon and Brock Nelson added empty-net goals in the final minute to give the Avs a 3–1 lead in the best-of-7 series. They can advance to the Western Conference Finals with a win at Denver on Wednesday night.
Mackenzie Blackwood made his first start of the playoffs and made 19 saves for Colorado. He wasn’t seriously tested, but made some great saves on Nico Sturm early in the third period to keep the game tied at 1-1. Blackwood saw his first action in the series when he relieved Scott Wedgwood in the second half of Minnesota’s 5–1 victory in Game 3.
Nazem Kadri and Russ Colton also scored for Colorado, which has not reached the conference finals since 2022, when the Avs won their second Stanley Cup championship.
Wild couldn’t hold off Avs in third period, losing 5-2 in Game 4
Danila Yurov scored a power-play goal midway through the first period to give the Wild a 1–0 lead. Sturm tied the game at 2-2 at 9:15 of the third after Colton’s goal at 6:56 put Colorado ahead for the first time.
The Wild got a stellar effort from rookie goaltender Jesper Wallstad, who finished with 29 saves. The “Wall of St. Paul” gave his team a chance to win on a night when Minnesota was outshot 34–21, outgained 77–48 in attempts and outshot for most of the game.
“We made a conscious choice tonight not to play the style of play we needed to win the game,” Minnesota coach John Hines said. “So, we’ll revisit that and then we’ll get ready for Game 5.”
Minnesota leads 2–6 all-time after falling behind 3–1 in the series. Both of those comebacks took place in 2003; One came when they lost three of the first four games to the Avs before winning the next three games and the series.
Colorado dominated almost every aspect of the game in the first round – except the scoreboard, which matters.
The Avs had a 10–4 advantage in shots on goal and attempted 22 shots compared to only six for Minnesota. According to Natural Stat Trick, the Avs had all five high-danger attempts at 5-on-5.
But he also gave up the Wild’s only power play in the early period — and paid a price for it.
Avs defenseman Josh Manson, making his first appearance of the series, drew a double minor off Wild center Michael McCarron at 7:07. This happened when both of them were lying on the ice. The original call was five minutes long but was shortened after a lengthy video review. Macron made it clear from time to time that he was not happy.
“Josh is a dirty player,” he told ESPN after the opening period. “He’s always been there. Surprised he only survived four minutes (of penalties). I’m glad he’s still in the game.”
The Wild forced Colorado to pay an unnecessary penalty at 9:46. Faber fired a straight slap shot that Yurov deflected past Blackwood for his first career playoff goal and a 1–0 lead.
The Avalanche dominated the rest of the period, holding Minnesota without a shot on goal for the final 6:51. They kept the pressure on Wallstead, but Wild dominated despite taking a one-goal lead.
They were not so lucky in the second round. Colorado dominated the game for the first 12 minutes and the game was tied 1–1 at 6:08 after Minnesota took an unnecessary penalty.
The Wild eliminated Zach Bogosian’s interference penalty at 2:42. But Colorado tied the game at 6:08 — seven seconds after Yakov Trenin was called for getting his hands off the puck. Trenin gloved an aerial puck and held it for a long period of time.
Martin Necas controlled the puck after the draw and got Kadri into the high slot for a blast that was stopped by Volstad. But the rebound came back to Kadri in the slot; He knocked it into the net to tie the game.
Colorado dominated for the next few minutes. The Avs had a 10–0 lead in shots before Trenin tested Blackwood on the power play with the Wild at 12:21.
Wallstedt made a spectacular stop on close by Gabriel Landeskog with 6:02 left. But that was the Avs’ last shot of the period, as Minnesota took control of the game and had the final seven shots. Blackwood preserved the tie in the final minute by robbing Kirill Kaprizov, who was alone after beating the defence.
Colton scored his first goal of the playoffs on a beautiful backdoor feed from Nicolas Roy to put Colorado ahead for the first time in the game. But great play from Quinn Hughes set up the Sturm for the tying goal. Hughes picked up the puck along the left board, spun back to the high slot and delivered a perfect backhand pass to Sturm. The son of Boston Bruins coach Marco Sturm scored from below the left circle to make the score 2–2.
However, a takeaway from Colorado’s Jack Drury made it the game winner. Drury forced a turnover and found Kelly in high position for a quick release that Walstead had never seen.
Minnesota got only two shots on Blackwood before empty-netters by MacKinnon and Nelson.
COL-MIN Key points after Game 4
ruin wallstead
Minnesota’s rookie goaltender did everything except stand on his head to keep his team in the game, although in the end it wasn’t enough.
He was the only reason the Wild were even tied 1-1 in the third period. Colorado outscored Minnesota 20–4 in the first 32 minutes of the game, but could only score one goal. According to Natural Stat Trick, the Colorado forward robbed Colton shortly before the game was tied and gave them a chance to win despite giving up 39 scoring chances.
There were many reasons for Wild’s loss. Wallstead was not one of them.
Does Quinn Hughes ever get tired?
The Wild gave up a lot to get Hughes from the Vancouver Canucks in December and he’s showing why in this year’s playoffs. His assist on Sturm’s goal was his 14th, tying Kaprizov for second in the league behind Mitch Marner of the Vegas Golden Knights.
He is second in assists with 10 and third in plus-minus with a plus-9.
What is more impressive is that he is playing virtually every other innings. Hughes led all players on both teams in playing time with 34:13 on Wednesday after playing more than 28 minutes in each of the first three games. His average ice time of 30:59 is the most of any player on the eight teams that reached the second round.
Wild still struggle on penalty kill
Minnesota continued a streak that coach John Hynes is not happy with. His team allowed a power-play for the 10th consecutive game. This includes all six against the Dallas Stars in the first round, as well as all four games of this series.
Minnesota ranks last out of eight teams on the penalty kill and heads into the second round at 59.5 percent, allowing 15 goals on 37 opposition power plays. This includes Colorado’s performance of 5 of 12 in the first four games.
stat shots
The Wild were 4-0 when scoring first this spring.
Teams leading 3-1 in best-of-7 series are 328-32 (.911) all-time. Teams that start the series at home are 212–17 (.926).
The Avs are 14-2 when leading the series 3-1, including 10-2 when starting at home. He has won seven consecutive times.
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