Marcus Johansson's injury The Minnesota Wild (28-15-4) walked away with an impressive road win over the Colorado Avalanche (28-19-1) on Monday. If they would have lost, Minnesota would've dropped to a Wild Card spot. With the win, the Wild moved past the Dallas Stars to second in the Central Division and are five points behind the Winnipeg Jets for first place. They are two points ahead of the Avalanche and one point in front of Dallas. Here are three takeaways from the Wild's 3-1 road win over Colorado. [gallery ids="164,165,166,167"] DAVID JIRICEK STEPS UP The young Wild defenseman is going to make the team have to make a tough decision. He is playing very well right now without Jared Spurgeon and Jonas Brodin in the lineup. When those two come back into the lineup, some changes will have to be made. Nonetheless, Jiricek is taking the most of this opportunity and he has looked great. He scored the game's first goal on Saturday against the Nashville Predators and added an assist on Monday against the Avalanche. In six games with the Wild, Jiricek has one goal and one assist. LIAM OHGREN'S BOUNCE BACK GAME The Wild forward was recently called up and played on Saturday against the Predators. He did not have a good first game and was a minus-4 in the 6-2 loss. On Monday, Ohgren bounced back in a big way. He recorded two assists in the 3-1 win over Colorado and was a key piece to the Wild's best line during the game. Ohgren, 21, was on the ice for all three Wild goals and finished with three shots on just nine minutes of ice time. JAKUB LAUKO INJURY SCARE Lauko, 24, just came back from a lower-body injury that had him out for 15 games. He played his first game back on Saturday against the Predators and played in his second game back on Monday in Colorado. He got hurt in the final minutes of the second period after Casey Mittelstadt hit him in the slot. Lauko left and did not return for the start of the third period. He ended up getting a shift in the third period and was fine to play. Let us know what you think by commenting below or on the Forum [https://thehockeynews.rtb.io/minnesota-wild/posts]. Make sure you bookmark The Hockey News' Minnesota Wild page [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/minnesota-wild/] for the latest news, exclusive interviews, breakdowns and so much more. Follow Dylan Loucks on Blue Sky [https://bsky.app/profile/dylanloucks.bsky.social] and Twitter (X). [https://twitter.com/DylanLoucks4?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor]
