Avalanche rally in Game 4 pushes Wild to the brink

Three-game winning streaks were rare for the Minnesota Wild during the regular season. But they will need one in the postseason to keep their 2025-26 campaign going.

They head back to the Front Range for the fifth meeting of their current playoff series with their backs against the wall, after the Colorado Avalanche twice broke a tie in the third period on Monday, winning 5-2 to take a 3-1 lead in this best-of-seven series.

Game 5 will be played Wednesday night at Ball Arena in Denver, with the faceoff scheduled for 7 p.m. Central.

Danila Yurov and Nico Sturm scored for the Wild, who led early and tied the game in the third, only to see Colorado get the tiebreaker late.

“I think we didn’t play direct enough,” said Wild coach John Hynes, after an opportunity to tie the series slipped away. “I think the style of game that we needed to play to win the game, we didn’t. We made a conscious choice not to play that way tonight.”

Jesper Wallstedt had 29 saves in his ninth playoff start.

With the game tied 2-2 in the latter half of the third, Avalanche fourth-liner Parker Kelly threaded a long-range shot through a pair of Wild defenders and past Wallstedt for the eventual game-winner.

“Unfortunately, we weren’t able to stop their pressure,” said Wild forward Michael McCarron. “I think we let them go for two straight periods. All their guys were really feeling it and when that happens, those guys get in a groove. They found ways to score in the third and we didn’t.”

Minnesota pulled Wallstedt with 1:40 remaining for an extra attacker but Nathan MacKinnon and Brock Nelson hit empty net goals to send Colorado back home in command of the series.

With seven minutes elapsed and Colorado out-shooting the Wild 6-1, Michael McCarron got tied up on the ice with Avs defenseman Josh Manson. In their struggle, Manson hit McCarron in the face with the butt end of his stick, and got a four-minute penalty for the infraction. The Wild managed just two shots on the extended power play, but the second of them went in, when Yurov tipped a Brock Faber shot past Blackwood. It was the first playoff goal for Yurov, who had a dozen goals in his first NHL season.

Colorado out-shot Minnesota 9-0 in the opening six minutes of the middle frame, and tied the game on their second consecutive power play. Wallstedt stopped the initial Avalanche shot, but the rebound eluded him as Nazem Kadri scored his 50th career playoff goal.

The Avalanche killed a pair of Minnesota power plays later in the second and survived a scare when MacKinnon took a puck to the face in front of the Colorado net. He was helped off the ice with a notable amount of blood on his jersey, but returned for the third.

Minnesota got some good offensive pressure from their bottom six forwards early in the third, including back-to-back point blank shots by Sturm that were blocked by Avs goalie Mackenzie Blackwood.

Colorado took its first lead with 13:04 to play when Ross Colton tapped a shot in after a cross-crease pass from Nicolas Roy had pulled Wallstedt out of position.

But before the period had reached the midway point, a long lead pass by Quinn Hughes set up Sturm’s first goal of the postseason.

“I don’t think we played fully to our identity, and I think everyone in this room knows that,” said Wild forward Matt Boldy, who has one goal, into an empty net, in the series. “We can’t change this one. We would have loved to have it, but can’t change it.”

After Scott Wedgewood started Colorado’s first seven playoff games, Blackwood got the crease on Monday versus the Wild and had 19 saves in his first start of this postseason.

While Minnesota was again without defenseman Jonas Brodin and forward Joel Eriksson Ek, neither of whom have played in Round 2, the Avalanche blue line got healthier with the return of Josh Manson, who had last played in Game 3 of their opening round sweep of Los Angeles. He had missed the previous four games with an upper body injury.

Colorado defenseman Sam Malinski and forward Artturi Lehkonen were both scratched with upper body injuries. In Malinski’s place, Avalanche defenseman Jack Ahcan — who played prep hockey at Burnsville and college hockey at St. Cloud State — made his NHL playoff debut.

Game 6, if necessary, would be Friday night in St. Paul.