Takeaways: Wild win seventh game in a row, cooling off Avalanche in shootout

The Wild’s switch from afterthought to juggernaut keeps getting more stunning.

They ended the Avalanche’s 10-game win streak, knocking off the NHL’s top team 3-2 in a shootout Friday at Grand Casino Arena for their season-best seventh consecutive victory.

“They’re the best team in the league right now,” said Jonas Brodin, who mentioned the game felt like the playoffs. “They [have] great players. But we’re a good team, too, and I think we showed that.”

Mats Zuccarello and Matt Boldy capitalized in the shootout after Kirill Kaprizov scored twice to pass Zach Parise for the third-most goals in franchise history and Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon netted his league-leading 19th goal and reaching an NHL-high 41 points.

Jesper Wallstedt went 2-for-3 in the shootout after making 39 saves in regulation and overtime to continue to thrive during his rookie season (7-0-2) and in the goalie rotation that is suiting the Wild to a T.

“I hope we keep doing it,” Wallstedt said.

This was only the eighth matchup in NHL history in which both teams put a win streak of at least six games on the line, and the second involving the Wild, who had their 12-game run ended by the Blue Jackets and their 15-win blitz on New Year’s Eve in 2016. The circumstances of this go-around were unique.

Colorado was also dominating the Central Division rivalry, prevailing in six of the past eight meetings with the Wild and five of its past six trips to St. Paul.

But the Wild turning over a new leaf after their woeful October has also included a revival inside the division: During their league-high 11-1-1 showing in November and active 9-0-1 tear, they have gone 4-0 vs. the division.

“These games are fun,” Boldy said. “They’re the best team in the NHL right now, so it’s a test. You’re gonna get them throughout the year. You’re gonna play a lot of really good teams, them being one. We play them a handful of times, so for us to come out and just kind of step up to the plate and be ready to go and find a way to win is huge.”

The showdown between the league’s top two teams this month lived up to its billing, with the Wild and the Avalanche going toe-to-toe and keeping each other in check — including on each team’s lone power play.

“We knew coming into the game it was going to be a heavyweight fight,” coach John Hynes said. “Two good teams that are playing strong hockey right now.”

But Kaprizov would atone for the miscue.

Zeev Buium’s centering pass deflected off Kaprizov’s left skate 12 minutes into the second period to wrap Colorado’s shutout streak at 221:42.

“Our second period was really, really good,” Boldy said. “Didn’t give them much, created a lot, found the back of the net obviously and did our job kind of all over the ice throughout the lineup.”

The goal was Kaprizov’s 200th with the Wild, one more than Parise, and he would also move by Mikko Koivu for the most home goals in team history with 114.

Kaprizov is the fourth-fastest player drafted in the fifth round or later to reach 200 career goals, his 344-game feat following Brett Hull (280), Luc Robitaille (323) and Pavel Bure (328).

Kaprizov’s 16 goals are tops on the team and third in the NHL.

“He can hurt you in a lot of different ways,” Hynes said. “He can one-time the puck. He can shoot it. He can tip it. The first goal, he’s driving to the net, hits it and goes in, and the other one he winds up where he gets a good pass and he triggers the puck.

“So, if you’re going to be an elite goal scorer in the league, you have to be able to do it in multiple ways, and he can.”

As expected, the Avalanche didn’t fade, and they answered back 11:08 into the third period when Gabriel Landeskog lifted in a back-post shot.

The photo finish was fitting, with the stalemate persisting through overtime and not getting resolved until Zuccarello and Boldy converted in the shootout. After Martin Necas connected for Colorado, Wallstedt stopped MacKinnon and Cale Makar.

“You want to compete against the best players, and I love shootouts,” said Wallstedt, who is on a 6-0 run and remains atop the league in save percentage (.938) and goals-against average (1.93). “Doing that against the best shootout takers in the world [is] pretty special. I felt like I had a good read on both, or on all three really, but lost my edge on the first one. Otherwise, I would have saved it.”

BOXSCORE: Wild 3, Colorado 2 (SO)

NHL standings

This was the longest win streak the Wild have slayed; their previous best was nixing seven-game surges for the Flames (2019) and Canucks (2013 and 2007).

“It’s nice to beat first team in the league,” Kaprizov said.

They already proved they’ve left their early-season struggles behind by becoming a top-10 team after loitering near the bottom during an awful start. But taking down the NHL leader without roster regulars (Marcus Foligno didn’t play and is now week-to-week with a lower-body injury) and with the structure that led to their turnaround is validation that the Wild are right where they belong.

“We kept them to the outside,” said Wallstedt, who marked the victory with his patented stick-raise celebration that is now christened on a T-shirt that his teammates wore. “Shots from the outside I can usually make the save on, and then they helped me out with the rebounds, and I felt like we just stuck to what we wanted to do and that worked.”