Wild again stumbles at Colorado in 4-1 loss

DENVER – Wild players weren't trick-or-treating for candy in between whistles, but they did spend Halloween eve at a haunted house called Ball Arena.

After dropping three games in Colorado last season, including two blowouts, another spooky sight happened Saturday when the Wild stumbled 4-1 against the Avalanche in front of 17,708 to suffer back-to-back losses for the first time this season.

Overall, the Wild (5-3) has won just three times in 11 trips to Denver since 2017-18.

BOXSCORE: Colorado 4, Wild 1

"They just play well here," Marcus Foligno said. "They're comfortable here."

Colorado captain Gabriel Landeskog tallied two goals and two assists, Nathan MacKinnon assisted on two goals and goaltender Darcy Kuemper turned aside 29 shots from his former team.

While not as grim as the 5-1 and 6-0 routs back in March, the Wild's return to Denver led to the same conclusion — falling short against a pesky division opponent that's considered a favorite to win the Stanley Cup.

The last time the Wild had four or more players appear in their first NHL game in the same season was 2017-18 when the team had six debuts.

But the Wild still had chances to gain an edge.

"It's tough to walk away with nothing," Foligno said.

In a 17-second span during the first period, the Wild hurled six pucks toward the net. Half were stopped by Kuemper, while the other half sailed wide.

On the very next shift, at 13:03, Landeskog crashed the net to bury a feed from Andre Burakovsky. The play was set up by MacKinnon, who extended his point streak to six games.

"They get going when their stars get going," Foligno said.

Eventually, the Wild tied the game at 1 on the power play in the second period.

Foligno passed off to Ryan Hartman, who scored on a one-timer from just inside the right faceoff circle at 16:54 as he dropped down to a knee.

Hartman's four goals are the most on the Wild. Foligno is tied for second in points with six.

But it wasn't long before the Avalanche reclaimed control.

Just 40 seconds after Hartman's goal, he leveled the Wild's Jonas Brodin en route to chasing down his own dump-in and then sent the puck to Erik Johnson, who pinched and wired the puck past goalie Cam Talbot with 2:26 to go in the second.

"We fought back pretty hard to get that goal at the end of the second and gave up the momentum right after that," said Talbot, who made 27 saves. "Need a save by me on that one."

In the third period, Nazem Kadri converted on a slapshot during a power play after Brandon Duhaime received a five-minute major and game misconduct for cross-checking Bowen Byram. The Avalanche finished 1-for-4, and the Wild went 1-for-2.

"We still had some looks at the end," coach Dean Evason said. "It's a tough game to keep coming back."

With 2:12 to go, Landeskog deposited his second goal of the game into an empty net.

But Evason wasn't displeased with the effort that preceded that outcome.