The puck escaped from a tangle of bodies, sliding through the slot and across the front of the net, and Wild winger Jason Zucker homed in on it.
He realized he couldn't reach the puck on his forehand but after his backhand went sailing through the crease instead of into a wide-open net with Avalanche goalie Philipp Grubauer caught out of position, Zucker second-guessed himself.
"Maybe I could have," he said.
Once he relived the replay, Zucker confirmed his gut reaction — that he took the only shot available.
And while it was one of the most egregious close calls of the night, it wasn't the only one.
A 3-1 loss to Colorado on Tuesday in front of an announced 18,785 at Xcel Energy Center was littered with them, a setback that had repercussions in front of and behind the team in the standings after it ended a season-long five-game homestand 1-3-1.
Not only did the Wild fail to leapfrog the Coyotes and jump back into the second wild card position in the Western Conference, but Colorado is now only a point back of the Wild — which is still a point shy of Arizona and has played one more game than both teams surrounding it.
"At this point in the season, effort is not enough," center Eric Fehr said. "We need to find ways to win games, and we're trying but so is the other team. We have to find a way to score goals. That's what it comes down to. Defensively, we've been pretty tight. But you're not going to win in this league scoring one or zero goals."