Wild clamp down on Avalanche to end three-game losing streak

DENVER – Until their game-long blunder at Nashville on Saturday night, third periods were stumping the Wild.

It was during that period when they fell apart in recent losses to Edmonton and Vegas after being tied at the second intermission. Even their 6-1 meltdown against Colorado on Jan. 9 was a reasonable two-goal difference before getting out of hand in the final frame.

“We’ll play 40 [minutes] hard and then lose in the last 20,” defenseman Jake Middleton said. “Sick and tired of that.”

In other words, they learned their lesson.

The Wild were their most assertive come crunch time, scoring twice in the third period to run away from the Avalanche 3-1 on Monday afternoon at Ball Arena and end their three-game losing streak with an appropriate about-face: Not only did they finally prevail late, but they put on a defensive clinic after a leaky, 6-2 letdown in Nashville to earn a split on their short road trip.

“Some games we were cracked,” forward Yakov Trenin said. “But today we cracked them, and it was important.”

Tied at 1, the Wild ignored their muscle memory and seized control on goals from Trenin and defenseman Brock Faber only 1 minutes, 35 seconds apart.

Trenin buried a slick pass from defenseman David Jiricek, who pinched and then veered around the Avalanche defense before finding Trenin at 2:08 of the third period. Two shifts later, Faber wired another wrister by Colorado goalie Mackenzie Blackwood at 3:43 from the same area.

“That’s what we talk all season, even preseason,” Trenin said, “how we can win that 50-50 game again heavyweights.”

The Avalanche, though, were a shell of themselves through the first two periods: They had a measly four shots almost halfway through — “Felt weird,” goalie Marc-Andre Fleury said — and didn’t hit double digits until late in the second.

How did the Wild tame one of the NHL’s highest-scoring teams and on the heels of such a patchy performance against the Predators?

They played offense so they didn’t have to be on defense.

“When all our parts are clicking like that in the O-zone, then that allows us as ‘D’ to be so aggressive,” Faber said.

Case in point: the Wild’s first goal, a seeing-eye shot through traffic from Middleton off a pass from Liam Ohgren at 12:18 of the first period for Middleton’s seventh goal, which matches his career high.

“We actually talked a lot about cutbacks,” Ohgren said. “I had a good opportunity to do that and saw Middsy wide open.”

Although the Wild never extended that lead, they applied enough pressure to, especially on the power play.

Blackwood, who racked up 23 stops, was at his best shorthanded to deny all four Wild power plays. He made a sharp pad save against Jiricek late in the first, robbed Joel Eriksson Ek with a glove save and kept out a near-side attempt by Ohgren. Colorado went 0-for-3.

The Avalanche weren’t stymied for good, converting with 1:08 left in the second period when Nathan MacKinnon crashed the slot for his NHL-leading 74th point after Middleton lost an edge, but the Wild didn’t retreat.

“We wanted to be more of an attacking team,” coach John Hynes said, “and I think sometimes when you play MacKinnon, [Mikko] Rantanen, [Cale] Makar and this team, you come into the game and you’re thinking defend, defend, defend. I think the best defense is a good offense, and going into the third period it was time where we started to try to take a game over as opposed to trying to see where it went.”

Fleury fended off the Avalanche’s attempted rally, picking up 16 of his 26 saves in the third.

BOXSCORE: Wild 3, Colorado 1

NHL standings

He improved to 10-4-1 with a 2.60 goals-against average and .909 save percentage and was backed up by Filip Gustavsson, who was too ill to suit up against the Predators. Fleury’s 20 seasons of at least 10 victories tied Martin Brodeur for the NHL record.

Ohgren also factored into Trenin’s game-winner for the first multi-point game of his career. The rookie forward was on the ice for all three Wild goals.

“His identity as a player really came through,” Hynes said.

The 29 goals from the defense are second in the NHL to only the 30 by Columbus’ blue line, and the Wild are an NHL-best 17-5-3 on the road.

Briefly, they were down to 11 forwards while Jakub Lauko went through the concussion protocol before returning. Lauko and Eden Prairie’s Casey Mittelstadt collided late in the second.

This was the Wild’s seventh win in 12 games without injured leading scorer Kirill Kaprizov, but the break until the Wild’s next game Thursday vs. Utah Hockey Club could help them add reinforcements. Captain Jared Spurgeon, defenseman Jonas Brodin and veteran forward Marcus Johansson are also on the mend.

“Knock on wood,” Middleton said. “I think everyone’s getting healthy. Hopefully everyone’s getting healthy, and we’ll welcome those guys back with wide-open arms whenever the chance comes.”