ST. PAUL — The Minnesota Wild fell 3-2 to the Colorado Avalanche Friday night inside Xcel Energy Center in their second divisional matchup of the season despite playing good enough to win.
The Wild have now lost six in a row (outscored 24-11) and are 3-7-5 in their past 15 contests. The Wild (5-9-2) are in serious danger of moving to last place in the Central Division with the Chicago Blackhawks only two points behind.
With that said, the Wild deserve some credit for their performance Friday night because they didn't look like a team that had lost five straight games. And the Avalanche (13-6) came into the divisional showdown with wins in four of their past five games. Colorado now has the top spot in the Central.
But the Wild once again gave up the game's first goal when Ross Colton beat Filip Gustavsson (22 saves on 25 shots) glove side from the left circle with 2:17 left in the first period. Valeri Nichushkin redirected Nathan MacKinnon's one-timer from atop the left circle past Gustavsson on the power play to give the Avalanche a two-goal lead with 11:21 left in the middle frame.
Only the Anaheim Ducks (602:51), San Jose Sharks (595:11) and Calgary Flames (572:50) have trailed longer this season than Minnesota (541:59).
34 seconds after Nichushkin's goal, Kirill Kaprizov cut the Wild's deficit to 2-1 when he found a loose puck in the crease after Marco Rossi fired a shot from the right circle. That is just Kaprizov's second five-on-five goal this season.
With 5:39 left in the second, Mats Zuccarello found Joel Eriksson Ek in front on the power play, and the Swede put the puck past Colorado goaltender Alexander Georgiev for his team-leading ninth goal this season.
The Wild played their best in the third period where they controlled 65 percent of the shot attempt share and 83 percent of the expected goal share at five-on-five.
But it didn't matter.
A sloppy shift proved costly and overshadowed the Wild's comeback against one of the major heavyweights in the Western Conference.
Following Jon Merrill's turnover, Colorado got to work in the offensive zone, and it paid off when Andrew Cogliano found Kurtis MacDermid in the slot. The veteran defender tucked the puck past Gustavsson on his backhand for his first goal since March 20.
The Wild had their chances in the third, but Georgiev had an answer every time and kept the Avalanche in the lead.
The Wild will now look to end their six-game losing streak Sunday in Detroit after another game where they played good enough to win.
While the Wild need a whole lot more from their power play (1-for-5), their penalty kill went 5-for-6 on a night where they were tested more than they can afford to be if the team wants a different result.
The Wild were far from perfect, but for a team that hasn't won since Nov. 7, it has got to be positive that they limited the Avalanche to 25 shots and stayed in the game until the end.
All data via Natural Stat Trick
What they said
— Head coach Dean Evason: "We're just not executing enough to win hockey games."
— Evason: "Did we play well enough to win tonight? Yes. But when things aren't going good, you need to do something extra."
— Marcus Foligno: "We're looking a little bit more like ourselves out there."
— Filip Gustavsson: "It's a completely different team in front of me now than when we let in those 5, 6, 7 goals a night."
Aaron's three stars:
1st star: Alexander Georgiev made 19 saves (eight high-danger) on 21 shots and saved 1.49 goals above expected, according to Natural Stat Trick.
2nd star: Valeri Nichushkin extended his goal streak to six games when he scored the Avalanche's second-period power play marker, and he finished with five shots and led Colorado forwards in ice time at 27:21.
3rd star: Joel Eriksson Ek finished with a team-high six shots, 22:42 of ice time (highest among Wild forwards) and scored the second-period power play goal.