Wild’s winning streak comes to a dramatic halt at hands of Avalanche

The Wild won’t have to wait too long for a do-over — their rematch against the Avalanche is only 10 days away — but the impression they’ve left in the meantime is not of the team that soared ahead of Colorado in the Central Division.

After admirably overcoming injuries the last week-plus to win four in a row, the Wild ended their streak one game shy of matching their season high with a 6-1 mismatch Thursday at Xcel Energy Center in which the Wild had a quarter of their usual lineup — including half their defense — missing.

“That wasn’t us,” defenseman Jake Middleton said. “That’s just not what we do and not how we come prepared to play.”

A pair of first-period goals propelled the Avalanche, the second off a Declan Chisholm gaffe, before a backbreaker by Mikko Rantanen 13 minutes into the second period that reclaimed a two-goal cushion for Colorado, which scored three more in the third for the Avalanche’s fifth consecutive victory over the Wild.

“Yeah, they’re banged up over there,” Colorado’s Josh Manson said. “That’s not their full team, but it’s nice to come into a back-to-back and find that energy, find that burst, especially in the third period.”

Avalanche goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood made 24 saves, while Filip Gustavsson had 21 stops behind a depleted blue line.

The Wild have been without five regulars before, but they’ve never had five absences of this magnitude.

Leading scorer Kirill Kaprizov, captain Jared Spurgeon and depth winger Jakub Lauko remained out, but joining them was the Wild’s top defensive unit: Brock Faber stayed sidelined after leaving the 6-4 win over the Blues on Tuesday with an upper-body injury from getting elbowed by St. Louis’ Jake Neighbours. And although he said he was good after the game, Jonas Brodin was stung by that late shot block against Colton Parayko, whose wind-up caught Brodin on the right skate. Brodin is considered day to day.

“We can’t make excuses,” Marcus Foligno said. “We gotta play without these guys for a little bit longer. So, next man up has to be the mentality.”

David Jiricek made his team debut on the blue line after he was acquired in a trade with Columbus on Nov. 30 for four draft picks, including the Wild’s first-rounder, and Travis Dermott also drew in.

As if that wasn’t enough of a roster scramble, the Wild almost needed an emergency backup goalie.

Marc-Andre Fleury was questionable because of illness; Fleury didn’t skate Thursday morning, and if he hadn’t been able to suit up, the Wild would have needed an EBUG like Connor Beaupre (the son of former North Stars goalie Don Beaupre) to stick around after Beaupre helped out at the team’s morning session because the Wild’s minor league goalies were unavailable. Jesper Wallstedt and Dylan Ferguson, who signed a two-way contract for the rest of the season earlier this week to give the Wild another call-up option, are hurt, and the Wild wouldn’t have had enough salary-cap space to promote Samuel Hlavaj.

On the plus side for the Wild, Kaprizov has resumed skating, getting on the ice Wednesday and Thursday.

Coach John Hynes said Kaprizov would probably travel for the team’s upcoming road trip to San Jose and Vegas if there’s a chance he plays. Kaprizov, who has a lingering lower-body injury, hasn’t played since Dec. 23, sitting out the past seven games.

During that time, the Wild have thrived on timely scoring, but their offense hit a wall against the Avalanche.

“We made mistakes. They went in,” Hynes said. “They made mistakes, [and] we had looks that didn’t go in the net.”

Colorado capitalized just 3:46 into the first period when Logan O’Connor got by the Wild defense to wire a puck by Gustavsson.

That lead doubled at 16:52 when Chisholm whiffed on a breakout pass, the puck rolling to Ross Colton in front of the Wild net for the can’t-miss goal.

With 1:33 left in the period, the Wild responded on Zach Bogosian’s second goal in as many games, a rising shot after Bogosian pinched in the slot.

But Rantanen doused the Wild’s comeback in the second, flinging in a shot from the middle off the rush.

“We gifted them some goals,” Hynes said.

The third was the toughest for the Wild, beginning with Parker Kelly’s one-timer 4:23 into the period.

The Wild struggled most at 5-on-5, with the penalty kill going 3-for-3, but the Avalanche did take advantage of the Wild’s second of three power plays. Artturi Lehkonen polished off a shorthanded 2-on-1 at 7:42.

Only 1:06 later, Nathan MacKinnon’s sent a blistering shot in from the right faceoff circle.

“We had a tough start, and then just nothing worked,” Gustavsson said. “Pucks went through. Only thing that was good today was probably the PK. They did a great job in front of me on the PK. The rest was very bad.”

This blowout lifted Colorado three points back of the Wild in the division, and these two teams will face off three more times starting Jan. 20 in Denver.

Who knows how healthy the Wild will be by then, but regardless, they’ll get a chance to show Round 1 wasn’t how they usually play.

“Hopefully it’s a one-off,” Middleton said.