For the third time in franchise history, the Wild will face the Colorado Avalanche in the postseason.
The Avalanche won the Central Division this afternoon thanks to the plummeting St. Louis Blues' home loss against the Detroit Red Wings.
The Wild-Avs series is expected to start in Denver on Thursday.
The Avs, who are 8-1-1 in their past 10 and play a meaningless game tonight at Anaheim, has gone from 29th place to a division championship in one year with Hall of Fame goalie Patrick Roy in his first year as coach.
The Wild went 1-3-1 against the Avalanche this season. Since March 5, 2006, the Wild is 32-14-6 against Colorado and 13-3-3 in its past 19 in Denver.
But the Avs are a different team. Semyon Varlamov, a potential Vezina winner, just broke Roy's single-season record with 41 wins. Guaranteed Calder winner Nathan MacKinnon, 18, is already one of the most threatening players in the West. Gabriel Landeskog is a rock-solid two-way forward, as is Ryan O'Reilly.. Bloomington's Erik Johnson has had a terrific season on the blue line.
The Avs average the fourth-most goals per game in the NHL (3.00), although they rank 14th defensively (2.63 goals against per game).
In 2003, the Wild rallied from 3-1 down to beat Colorado in the first round. Andrew Brunette scored the most famous goal in franchise history and sent Roy into retirement by scoring the series-clinching goal in overtime. In 2008, after the Wild won the Northwest Division, Jose Theodore and the Avs stoned the Wild in six games.
