Wild Warmup: Minnesota at Colorado

The essentials

The Wild Warmup is presented by Bryant Heating and Cooling
DENVER -- Riding a three-game winning streak, the Wild will embark on one of the NHL's most difficult road arenas on Monday afternoon when it takes on the Colorado Avalanche at Ball Arena.
While Minnesota has been one of the better road clubs in the Central Division so far this season, the test in the Mile High City Monday will be a stiff one. Colorado is 15-2-1 at Ball Arena this season, and enters the contest riding a 13-game winning streak on home ice.
The Avs haven't lost a game on home ice since a 5-4 overtime defeat to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Nov. 3, and haven't lost in regulation since Oct. 26 against Vegas, a stretch that includes a 4-1 win over the Wild on Oct. 30.

"They're just really good at countering and coming in waves," said Wild forward Marcus Foligno. "They get momentum ... and it seems like when they get the fans going they keep coming and they're good in spurts. It's all about controlling that, minimizing those waves of attack that they produce."
Colorado's top line became whole again on Saturday when Gabriel Landeskog returned from COVID-19 protocols in a 5-0 win at Arizona. Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen accounted for four of the Avs' five goals in the game, with Nazem Kadri scoring the other. Both MacKinnon and Rantanen finished with two goals and an assist.
"They have a lot of good players, especially that first line," Foligno said. "You've gotta be hard on that first line... and play [against] that line with meaning and be hard on sticks, block shots."
The Wild will get a player back from COVID-19 protocols as well on Monday when defenseman Alex Goligoski is expected to return from a two-game absence. Goligoski had a four-game point streak snapped in his last outing in Boston, but has tallied an assist in five of his past seven overall, posting two goals and 19 assists in 29 games to go with a plus-16.
The Wild remains without forward Joel Eriksson Ek (COVID-19 protocol), defensemen Jared Spurgeon (lower-body) and Jonas Brodin (upper-body) and goaltender Cam Talbot, but despite their absences, the Wild has managed to go on a three-game winning streak following its five-game skid that concluded with the Winter Classic.

"I don't think the last two weeks have shown us anything that we didn't know from day one," said Wild coach Dean Evason. "I think if we look back to game one, we were pretty resilient and hung in there. The season is for that, to go through adversity and different things; positive things and dealing with success and dealing with adversity. You grow from it and learn from it and our group has done a real good job with that."
The Avs have begun the season as well as any since relocating to Denver from Quebec in 1995. Colorado has won seven of its past eight games overall, and enters the day Monday riding an eight-game points streak. Sunday marked one full month since the Avs' last regulation loss, a 5-2 defeat in Nashville on Dec. 16.
That defeat marks Colorado's only regulation loss since Dec. 2, a span of 16 games (13-1-2), a stretch that has vaulted the Avs to the top of the Central Division standings.
Colorado leads Minnesota by five points, although the Wild does have a game in hand, as well as a pair of meetings between the clubs back in St. Paul later this season.
Kadri leads the team with 35 assists and 49 points. Rantanen has a team-high 19 goals, while MacKinnon has eight goals and 38 points in just 25 games.
Darcy Kuemper is coming off a 20-save shutout Saturday in Arizona and is 17-5-1 with a 2.74 goals-against average and a .908 save percentage in 25 starts this season.