DENVER — Wild players weren't trick-or-treating for candy in between whistles, but they did spend Halloween eve at a haunted house called Ball Arena.
After dropping three games in Colorado last season, including two blowouts, another spooky sight happened Saturday when the Wild stumbled, 4-1, against the Avalanche to suffer back-to-back losses for the first time this season.
Overall, the Wild (5-3) has won just three times in 11 trips to Denver since 2017-18.
Colorado captain Gabriel Landeskog scored twice and picked up two assists, Nathan MacKinnon assisted on two goals, and goaltender Darcy Kuemper turned aside 29 shots from his former team.
While not as grim as the 5-1 and 6-0 routs back in March, the Wild's return to Denver resulted in the same outcome — a mismatch against a pesky division opponent that's considered a favorite to win the Stanley Cup.
Neither team was at full strength; the Avalanche was missing its first-line right winger Mikko Rantanen, while the Wild was without a handful of regulars. Forwards Mats Zuccarello and Rem Pitlick are in the NHL's COVID-19 protocol, winger Jordan Greenway is on injured reserve with a lower-body injury and top-pairing defenseman Alex Goligoski has an upper-body injury.
In their place, the Wild tabbed four players who started the season in the minors. That group included Adam Beckman, who was making his NHL debut just days after Connor Dewar and Jon Lizotte skated in theirs.
The last time the Wild had four or more players appear in their first NHL game in the same season was 2017-18 when the team had six debuts.
A younger lineup could help explain the hiccups to wrap up this three-game road trip, which began with a feel-good win at Vancouver before a letdown in Seattle. But the Wild's go-to players still had an opportunity to make a difference.
Take the first period.
In a 17-second span, the Wild hurled six pucks toward the net. Half were stopped by Kuemper, while the other half sailed wide.
On the very next shift, at 13 minutes, 3 seconds, Landeskog crashed the net to bury a feed from Andre Burakovsky. The play was set up by MacKinnon, who extended his point streak to six games.
Since the start of the year, MacKinnon has 16 points in eight games vs. the Wild. The 14 he had last season were the most points by one player against the Wild in a single season.
Eventually, the Wild seized momentum thanks to back-to-back power plays in the second period.
After hemming Colorado in its zone for most of the first advantage, pressure that saw Kuemper fend off two Kirill Kaprizov shots and one from Joel Eriksson Ek, the Wild capitalized on its second chance. Marcus Foligno passed off to Ryan Hartman, who scored on a one-timer from just inside the right faceoff circle at 16:54 as he dropped down to a knee.
Hartman's four goals are the most on the Wild. Foligno is tied for second in points with six.
But it wasn't long before the Avalanche reclaimed control.
And MacKinnon was leading the charge.
Just 40 seconds after Hartman's goal, he leveled the Wild's Jonas Brodin en route to chasing down his own dump-in and then sent the puck to Erik Johnson, who pinched and wired the puck by goalie Cam Talbot with 2:26 to go in the second.
That lead grew in the third period after Brandon Duhaime received a five-minute major and game misconduct for cross-checking Bowen Byram.
During the ensuing Colorado power play, Nazem Kadri converted on a slapshot at 2:54. The Avalanche finished 1 for 4, and the Wild went 1 for 2.
Landeskog scored his second goal of the game into an empty net with 2:12 left in the third.
Talbot, who was only on the hook for two goals in the Wild's 4-1 setback against the Kraken on Thursday, had 27 saves.
Next up for the Wild is a home game on Tuesday vs. Ottawa.
