Wild fall 3-2 to Avalanche as losing streak reaches six games

The losing streak that's hounded the Wild for more than two weeks and on two continents won't go away.

They had another light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel effort on Friday but were still downed 3-2 by the Avalanche at Xcel Energy Center to drop a sixth consecutive game in their return from Sweden.

This is the Wild's longest skid since an eight-game slide Jan.23-Feb.13, 2016.

Their last victory was Nov. 7, 4-2 on the road over the Islanders.

"It's just the small mistakes that's killing us right now," goaltender Filip Gustavsson said.

Case in point: The tiebreaker from Colorado's Kurtis MacDermid only 4 minutes, 56 seconds into the third period was an uncontested deke around Gustavsson after a turnover by the Wild had the team scrambling.

"We shoot ourselves in the foot for the third goal, it's just the way it's been going," Marcus Foligno said, "and it's frustrating."

That sequence overshadowed a gutsy game by Joel Eriksson Ek, who scored the tying goal in the second period after having a tooth knocked out by a high stick, and Kirill Kaprizov's best performance in recent memory.

Kaprizov kickstarted the Wild's rally only 34 seconds after the team sunk into a 2-0 hole, the winger capitalizing for the first time in four games at 9:13 of the second period.

The finish also extended his goal streak vs. Colorado to six games to tie Brian Rolston and Marian Gaborik for the longest against one opponent in franchise history.

Then at 14:21, Eriksson Ek redirected in a Mats Zuccarello feed in front of the net for his team-leading ninth goal and fifth on the power play.

"For the most part, you'd think that our effort tonight would get you a win," Foligno said. "It's a tough way to end it."

That own-zone lapse early in the third period, however, wasn't the only culprit.

After the Wild fell behind on a Ross Colton shot off the rush from inside the left faceoff circle with 2:17 to go in the first, Colton opened the door for a Wild comeback in the second when he caught Eriksson Ek with a high stick that had Eriksson Ek and Kaprizov looking for teeth on the ice.

"I just saw small ones, and I just took them and gave them to [head trainer John] Worley," Kaprizov said.

But the ensuing four-minute power play was cut short by a Marcus Johansson hooking penalty before a Foligno trip led to an abbreviated advantage for the Avalanche; shortly after, an interference call against Jake Middleton gave Colorado another power play, and this time the team converted when Valeri Nichushkin tipped in a Nathan MacKinnon shot at 8:39.

Overall, the Avalanche went 1-for-6, while the Wild were 1-for-5 against goalie Alexandar Georgiev (19 saves) in their first game of the season at full strength.

Earlier in the day, the team activated Alex Goligoski off long-term injured reserve and assigned Vinni Lettieri and Dakota Mermis to the minors.

"When you're not scoring and things aren't going well and one mistake ends up in your net, you have to score with the power play," coach Dean Evason said. "Penalty kill was good tonight, but we need something special to happen and it didn't happen tonight on the power play."

For three games in a row the Wild have been missing that spark, this their third consecutive one-goal loss.

That they're back in battles where one play is deciding outcomes is a nod to the improvement they've made since a season-worst 8-3 pasting by the Stars two Sundays ago. But until their progress turns into points, the disconnect continues.

"If we would have played like this all season, we would have a lot more wins," said Gustavsson, who finished with 22 saves. "It's a completely different team in front of me now than when we let in those five, six, seven goals a night.

"It's what it is right now, and we just need to fight through it."