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. 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.
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.