ST. PAUL, Minn. _ The NHL-employed off-ice officials who work Wild games needed to hit the showers after one period of play Saturday night.
One of the league's strictest crews when it comes to accounting for shots on goal, 41 combined were registered in the first 20 minutes of the Wild-Colorado Avalanche derby.
But of the Wild's 21 shots, only Charlie Coyle's crossed the goal line, and that kind of exemplified how torturous it has been lately for the Wild to score.
Tyler Graovac did score a highlight-reel goal in the second period to give the Wild a two-goal cushion, but just when it looked like Devan Dubnyk would cruise to a second consecutive shutout and league-leading fifth, the Avalanche stormed back in the third period en route to a 3-2 victory.
Starting 3 minutes, 51 seconds into the final period, Mikko Rantanen, Carl Soderberg and Nathan MacKinnon scored 5:29 apart to absolutely stun the on-their-heels Wild and the 19,238 fans at Xcel Energy Center. It was a gutsy win by the Avs, who were without captain Gabriel Landeskog and No. 1 center Matt Duchene.
Facing a team that had yielded a league-low 29 goals with an NHL-best .941 save percentage and a goalie running hot of late and especially in the first two periods Saturday, the Avalanche took advantage of a team that looked like it packed up for the evening in the second intermission.
Rantanen got the comeback started with a slam-dunk at the side of the net after a defensive breakdown. That goal snapped Dubnyk's shutout streak at 156:06.
The Avs weren't done. After a Christian Folin penalty, Soderberg tied the score when his attempted cross-ice feed hit Ryan Suter's skate. Dubnyk robbed his initial shot, but Soderberg scored on the rebound.
With the crowd voicing restlessness, the Wild put forth a couple dreadful shifts in a row until MacKinnon, who torched the Wild mostly at home in the 2014 playoffs, skated 1 vs. 3, passed a stick-checking Jason Pominville and fired the go-ahead goal through Mike Reilly's legs.
Playing without ill-stricken Zach Parise, the Wild closed their homestand with a season-high 43 shots but second loss in three games. The Wild scored three goals on the homestand and, in losing five of its last eight games, has scored two or fewer goals seven times.
Minnesota travels to Dallas, which is rarely friendly, for a game Monday.
The Avalanche got a terrific performance by Calvin Pickard, who shut out the Wild with 32 saves in Denver on Nov. 5. He made 41 saves. Dubnyk finished with 32.
After coach Bruce Boudreau called the Wild's power-play numbers "horrible" earlier in the day, Coyle scored his career-high third power-play goal early in the first period when he redirected Jared Spurgeon's setup off Avs defenseman Patrick Wiercioch and into Colorado's net.
During the first 20 minutes, the Wild registered 21 shots, a season-high for a period and a franchise-record for the first period. It was three shots short of the franchise record for any period.
The Wild actually jumped out to a 14-7 shot lead with 7:07 left in the first, but in the next 1:21, the Avalanche unleashed eight shots. Dubnyk stopped every single one in the flurry.
By the end of the period, the teams combined for 41 shots, a Wild record for shots by both teams in a period. There were 60 combined shot attempts.
In the second period, following suffocating forechecks on three consecutive shifts by Wild forward lines, Graovac made it 2-0. After wheeling away from defenseman Eric Gelinas near the corner, Graovac cut to the net and tried to feed Zack Mitchell at the far side of the crease. But the puck was stopped by defenseman Tyson Barrie and as Graovac skated toward the left, he found the puck and scored by sliding on the ice. Both of Graovac's goals this season have come with him on his behind.
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