Scoring funk continues as Wild fall out of playoff spot with 3-2 loss to Colorado

If there ever was a favorable time to face the reigning Stanley Cup champions, this might have been it.

The Avalanche were coming off a shootout loss at home the previous night, were missing key regulars to injury and were very much playing like their circumstances.

But a watered-down Colorado still executed enough to topple the Wild 3-2 on Wednesday in front of 17,965 at Xcel Energy Center and drop its Central Division rival out of a Western Conference playoff spot.

"We played good," Joel Eriksson Ek said, "but it doesn't really matter when the outcome is losing."

This was the Wild's eighth loss in their past 11 games (seventh in regulation).

Not only do they now trail the Avalanche by two points for third place in the division, but the Wild blew their game in-hand over the Flames to fall from the second wild-card seed. Both the Wild and Calgary have 61 points, but the Flames currently own the tiebreaker.

"We played a really good game, and unfortunate we don't get anything [out] of it," Mats Zuccarello said. "It's hard to swallow."

The first momentum swing arrived with 4 minutes, 46 seconds to go in the first period, a shot off the rush by Andrew Cogliano that interrupted a strong start by the Wild. They were racking up shots against Alexandar Georgiev, who was in net on Tuesday when the Avalanche were defeated 4-3 in a shootout by the Lightning, but none of the Wild's attempts resulted in a goal.

"We had tremendous looks inside," Wild coach Dean Evason said. "We were not a perimeter team."

Colorado, meanwhile, was much more opportunistic.

A nearly 50-foot wind-up from Denis Malgin landed behind Fleury just 2:20 into the second period to double the Avalanche's lead.

After that, the Wild controlled the puck but converted only once, a deflection by Eriksson Ek on the power play at 7:09. The goal was Eriksson Ek's 21st and 11th on the power play, which is one shy of the career high he had last season. Overall, the Wild went 1-for-2 and the Avalanche finished 0-for-1.

Nathan MacKinnon surged into Wild territory and flung the puck five-hole on Fleury with 3:31 left in the second.

Fleury, who usually talks after his starts but didn't speak after the game, totaled 16 saves.

"Of course, he's frustrated," Evason said.

That game-winning goal by Colorado, which has key players like Cale Makar and Gabriel Landeskog out hurt, was its first shot since Malgin's goal, a span of 14:09.

"The feeling was we were coming back," Evason said.

Kirill Kaprizov decreased the deficit at 14:07 of the third period, his backhander eluding Georgiev for his team-leading 31st goal. Of the last 21 goals the Wild have tallied, Kaprizov and Eriksson Ek are responsible for six apiece. Zuccarello's setup was his second assist of the game, giving him his 12th multi-point effort of the season.

But to overtake the Avalanche the Wild needed two more goals, and the last time they scored four was 11 games earlier. Georgiev ended up blocking 41 shots; the 43 pucks on net the Wild registered the most since they had 44 on Jan. 7 at Buffalo.

"When you're losing and you don't play good, you deserve it," Zuccarello said. "I think these losses here are harder when you feel like you're playing a really good game for 60 minutes. That's the way it goes right now. We've got to dig deep. Points are hard to come by for us at this moment. But there's no excuses.