Wild and Stars on playoff collision course in powerful Central Division as they chase NHL-best Avs

ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Dallas Stars surged into the Olympic break on a six-game winning streak. The Minnesota Wild won their last five games to finish 8-1-1 before the NHL 's three-week schedule pause.

Both teams have maintained top-five records in the league for much of the season — and they've constantly been trying to catch the rival Colorado Avalanche.

Such has been the predicament in the powerful Central Division, where the NHL's siloed playoff format would pit the Stars against the Wild in the first round if the standings were to stay this way. The Avalanche would then be favored to face the winner in the divisional bracket, likely bouncing two of the top five teams in the league from the postseason by the second round.

''It's a fun division to be a part of,'' Wild goalie Filip Gustavsson said, ''because every game really matters.''

The Avalanche went 37-9-9 for an NHL-leading 83 points before the break, a sparkling record that has actually lost some luster from earlier this winter. They led the division by 12 points on Jan. 11, but the Wild (34-14-10) with 78 points and Stars (34-14-9) with 77 points have narrowed their gaps.

Colorado came out of the break with a game at Utah on Wednesday, when Dallas hosted Seattle. Minnesota had an extra day before playing at, conveniently, Colorado on Thursday.

''They become a little bit more human now and are losing a few games, so if we win tomorrow and get on a little run we might be able to catch up some ground to them,'' Gustavsson said after practice on Wednesday.

''We pretty much have to sweep them, and we've got to greatly outplay them to take that spot,'' Stars center Matt Duchene said. ''So could it be done? Yes. Will it be done? Probably not, to be honest, but that's OK. It feels like in our division we've got go through the gauntlet every year, and we're ready for that.''

The Avalanche had four players competing in the Olympic gold medal game in Italy on Sunday, alongside three from the Wild and two from the Stars. The three teams combined sent 23 players to the Winter Games, making the final stretch all the more intriguing. Not only will each club need to recreate the momentum it had prior to the break, but the Olympians — particularly the Americans and Canadians — must be reintegrated after not getting the time off that most of their NHL peers had.

The Stars are expecting to miss leading scorer Mikko Rantanen for multiple weeks after he suffered a lower-body injury with Finland in the Olympics.

''My experience with these streaks is that when you have a big break like this, it kind of interrupts the rhythm,'' Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said.

But that doesn't mean he's expecting a fade, considering his team's recent performance.

With defensemen Quinn Hughes and Brock Faber and forward Matt Boldy winning gold medals for the U.S. and then heading to the White House during their whirlwind celebratory return, the Wild will have three key players who've been on the go the whole time. But they're young — and the experience ought to help them come playoff time, coach John Hynes said.

''When you get in those environments of high-stakes games, really it's like three Game 7s because you have a quarterfinal, and then you have a semifinal, and then you have a medal game, and they're all one and done,'' Hynes said, as he broke down the benefits: ''The preparation, understanding of how to play in those situations with that type of pressure and fanfare and knowing that one mistake could cost the game.''

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AP Sports Writer Stephen Hawkins in Dallas contributed to this report.

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