For the first time in six games the Wild lost. And while most of the talk in the dressing room was that the Wild had controlled much of the play Sunday – and they did – it was Zach Parise who hit the nail on the head: "We just didn't play that great, I don't think," he said. "We had a good start, and we started to turn a lot of pucks through the neutral zone in the second period. … We played one good period in Carolina (Friday) and got away with a win there. I don't think we played well throughout the whole game to get a win tonight.''
Here are some impressions of tonight's game:
--The folks here at Xcel Energy Center, intent on booing Cody McLeod every time he touched the puck, couldn't have been too happy that he was the one scoring the game's first goal. And then Gabriel Landeskog – who, along with McLeod was fined in the wake of the Feb. 28 game with the Wild – scores Colorado's third goal. It was that kind of night. "They felt they were wronged last game," Colorado defenseman Nate Guenin said. And on McLeod in particular? "Our guy was more than willing to stand in there and stick up for himself," Guenin said. "We know we've got a heck of a warrior in five-five."
--The Wild did have a lot of puck control tonight, and they did out-shoot the Avalanche. But they didn't get enough quality scoring chances. It was something coach Mike Yeo talked about. "I think that, for a little while, shooting the puck was our secondary option," he said. "Especially in the first half of the game.''
--It's too bad the game-winning goal for Colorado came on the power play. The Wild killed two of three penalties tonight and leads the league in penalty kill percentage at home ice this season (89.4 percent).
--Defenseman Jonas Brodin had his third career multi-point game, assisting on both Wild goals.
--Right wing Chris Stewart had a couple of firsts tonight. He got his first fight with the Wild, and then registered his first goal with the team.
--Right Wing Nino Niederreiter had an assist Sunday. He has seven points (5-2—7) in his last 10 games.
--For goalie Devan Dubnyk it was just his fourth loss in a Wild sweater. He is 18-4-1 with a 1.66 GAA and a .937 save percentage in 24 starts with the team.
