DENVER – A revitalized offense isn't the only souvenir the Wild picked up during its five-game road trip coming out of a COVID-19 shutdown.
The team also secured eight out of a possible 10 points, climbing back into a playoff position in the West Division after outmuscling the Avalanche 6-2 on Wednesday at Ball Arena to extend its season-long win streak to four games.
Zach Parise's recorded the 800th point of his career after snapping out of a nine-game goalless funk, Marcus Foligno and Ryan Hartman had two-point efforts for the second straight game – including combining on the game-winning shorthanded goal – and goalie Kaapo Kahkonen was steady as usual during a 30-save performance.
The Kirill Kaprizov, Victor Rask and Mats Zuccarello line also continued to deliver, opening the scoring 9 minutes, 44 seconds into the first period when they broke out for a 3-on-1 that Zuccarello buried with a shot from along the goal line.
With the goal, Zuccarello registered his 400th career point, pushed his goal streak to three games (which ties his career best) and has nine points in his last four games after adding an assist int eh third period. He also became the sixth player in Wild history to score the team's first goal in three consecutive games.
Rask has five points during a three-game point streak and Kaprizov has six on his three-game run, the longest in the rookie Kaprizov's career. Kaprizov continues to lead NHL rookies and the Wild in scoring with 15 points.
Overall, the line has 19 points in three games together.
That one-goal lead held for the rest of the first period, with Kahkonen coming up clutch – especially on a sequence against J.T. Compher and Valeri Nichuskin. After stopping Compher's shot, Kahkonen quickly kicked out his right pad to stop Nichuskin's rebound attempt.
But the Wild lost the momentum in the second, and the Avalanche took advantage. Compher converted off the rush at 7:21, and the Wild spent more than half the period without a shot.
Finally, at 12:31, the team rediscovered its groove with a slump-busting goal from Parise, who tipped in a Matt Dumba shot set up by Foligno for the 800th point of Parise's career.
Parise is the 21st active NHL skater, 18th U.S.-born skater and third Minnesota native to hit the plateau.
The Wild was reenergized after that, with Foligno providing an insurance goal shorthanded at 15:11 – one-timing in a backhander from Hartman after the Wild won an offensive-zone draw.
This is the second time Foligno, who was coming off a Gordie Howe hat trick Monday at San Jose, posted back-to-back multi-point games, and the goal was his first shorthanded tally with the Wild and fifth overall in his career.
Not only was the assist the first shorthanded one of Hartman's career, but it also continued his productivity up the middle – bumping career-high assist and point streaks to three and four games, respectively.
On its next power play, Colorado was the one that capitalized after Nazem Kadri scored on a rising shot 3 minutes into the third period. The Avalanche finished 1-for-4, while the Wild went 0-for-2.
But again, the Wild responded.
Hartman connected on a backhander at 11:56 for six points over four games, including four assists since he started at center three games ago.
And then 1:03 later, Nico Sturm scored his first career regular-season goal on a breakaway before burying another into an empty net at 17:32.
Philipp Grubauer made 19 saves for Colorado.
