Wild season ends with 4-3 overtime loss to Avalanche in Game 5: Takeaways

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The Minnesota Wild’s final loss of the season was their most painful.

The Wild blew an early three-goal lead to the Colorado Avalanche in Game 5 of their Western Conference Second Round series at Ball Arena on Wednesday night. They still led by two before allowing a pair of goals in the final 3:33 of regulation that forced overtime.

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Minnesota failed to convert on two excellent scoring chances early in overtime before Avs defenseman Brett Kulak scored at 3:52 of OT for a 4-3 victory. Colorado is headed to the conference final against the Anaheim-Vegas series winner. Minnesota is headed home with one of the most painful losses in its history.

Kulak broke up an excellent scoring chance in the defensive zone before racing up ice, taking a pass from Martin Necas and one-timing it past Jesper Wallstedt for the series-winning goal. It was his first goal since Jan. 19, when he was playing with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Before Colorado’s late rally, it looked like the Wild had the game in the bag; they led 3-1 with less than four minutes remaining.

But the Avs got within one when Jack Drury deflected Devon Toews’ long wrister past Jesper Wallstedt with 3:33 to play. They tied it with 1:23 left when Nathan MacKinnon found a miniscule opening with a perfect shot from the lower left circle.

Until that point, the night had belonged to the Wild.

Wild season with 4-3 OT loss to Avalanche in Game 5

Marcus Johansson scored 34 seconds into the game to put Minnesota up 1-0. Nick Foligno then scored twice in less than five minutes, giving the Wild a 3-0 lead less than 16 minutes in.

Parker Kelly got one back for Colorado midway through the second period, but the Wild looked to be in command until the late goals by Drury and MacKinnon forced overtime.

The sellout crowd of 18,159 came ready to see the Presidents’ Trophy winners advance to the Western Conference Final for the first time since winning the Cup in 2022. But the Wild showed right from the opening face-off that they had other plans.

Johansson put Minnesota on the board on the first shift. Matt Boldy went around Colorado’s Brock Nelson behind the net and worked his way to the left corner. He backhanded a perfect pass to Johansson, who one-timed it past Mackenzie Blackwood for a 1-0 lead.

Foligno made it 2-0 at 11:03 with his first goal of the postseason. He went to the net, got his stick on Nico Sturm’s pass and deflected it past Blackwood.

The Wild thought they’d made it 3-0 at 12:26 when Michael McCarron knocked a carom off the post into the net during a delayed penalty. But a video review showed the Wild center had used his gloved hand to get the puck past Blackwood, and the goal came off the board.

Minnesota did get its three-goal lead at 15:56 on Foligno’s second of the period. Blackwood didn’t catch Sturm’s long wrister, and Sturm beat Avs defenseman Jack Ahcan to the puck. His backhand cross-crease pass found Foligno, who swatted it into the open left side for a 3-0 advantage.

The Avs changed goaltenders after Blackwood allowed three goals on 13 shots in the opening 20 minutes. Scott Wedgewood relieved him — and Colorado came out with the kind of energy it was missing in the first period.

The Avalanche had nine of the 10 scoring chances in the middle period, according to Natural Stat Trick, as well as a 33-8 edge in shot attempts. But the “Wall of St. Paul” kept them off the board until the 11-minute mark, when Kelly deflected Brent Burns’ right-point slapper up and past Wallstedt to make it 3-1.

Colorado kept pushing, earning its first power play when Danila Yurov high-sticked Cale Makar at 16:52. Wallstedt made three saves and MacKinnon hit the post, leaving the Wild up two goals with 20 minutes to play.

The Wild appeared to be content to play defense in the third period, rarely making a foray into the offensive zone. The strategy worked well until 16:27, when Drury got his second of the postseason on a play similar to Kelly’s goal. Toews took a long straightaway wrister, and Drury deflected it past Wallstedt to make it 3-2.

With the crowd now in full roar, the Avs pulled Wedgewood with two minutes remaining and tied it on MacKinnon’s rip from the lower left circle, picking a tiny opening high on the short side.

Key Takeaways after Wild season ends with loss to Avs in Game 5

Wild paid price for sitting back

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Minnesota outshot Colorado 13-12 and led 3-0 after playing a dominant first period. Unfortunately for the Wild, the game wasn’t over.

Colorado showed why it finished first in the regular-season standings by controlling play the rest of the way. The Avs outshot Minnesota 22-7 after the opening period, including 4-0 in overtime. Colorado had a 22-3 edge in scoring chances at 5-on-5 after the first period and a 9-2 margin in high-danger chances during that time, according to Natural Stat Trick.

Minnesota appeared increasingly content to sit back, dump the puck and make the Avs come 200 feet rather than seek to get another goal. That’s a tough strategy to implement for a long time against the NHL’s highest-scoring team. In the end the Wild paid the price.

Wasting Foligno’s big night

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The Wild added Nick Foligno in a trade with Columbus on March 6 to play a bottom-six role, often with younger brother Marcus. The 38-year-old had just one goal in 17 regular-season games after the trade and didn’t score in Minnesota’s first 10 playoff games.

That all changed in the first period, when he connected twice in less than five minutes to put the Wild up by three.

It was his second career multi-goal playoff game — and the first since Game 6 of the first round with the Columbus Blue Jackets.

What’s next for Wild

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The way their season ended will sting for a while, but the Wild look like a team on the rise.

The best news was that they won a playoff series for the first time since 2015, ending a streak of eight straight opening round/Preliminary Round losses. They have premium players at left wing (Kirill Kaprizov) and on defense (Quinn Hughes), an up-and-coming star in forward Matt Boldy and an excellent No. 2 defenseman in Brett Faber.

The injury absences of center Joel Eriksson Ek and defenseman Jonas Brodin hurt against Colorado.

Coach John Hynes will have the offseason to decide whether he wants to give Wallstedt the No. 1 job. He spent most of the season in a 1B role goalie behind Filip Gustavsson. But Gustavsson’s five-year, $34 million contract kicks in next season — a big deal for a backup/1B goalie.

But the biggest question is the future of Hughes, who has one year remaining before he can become an unrestricted free agent. GM Bill Guerin gave up a lot to the Vancouver Canucks to get the 26-year-old in December. He can sign him to an extension beginning on July 1 and will undoubtedly make every effort to do just that.

Stat shots

The Avs clinched a series at home for the first time in their last 10 tries, dating back to 2008. That also came against the Wild.

Colorado’s comeback from a three-goal deficit was the first by any team in this year’s playoffs. Five teams won after trailing by two goals.

Kulak scored the series clincher and became the 16th Avalanche player with a goal during the second round, tying the NHL record for the most in a single series.

Colorado became the 13th team in NHL history, and second in 2026, along with the Carolina Hurricanes, to require nine or fewer games through the first two best-of-7 series to make it to the round before the Final.

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