- The Wild led 3-0 after one period and managed just seven shots the rest of the way
- Brock Faber said Colorado deserved to win the series and didn’t sugarcoat the loss
- See below for the Wild’s postgame reactions and video of how it all fell apart
The Minnesota Wild locker room was almost silent after Game 5. Players sat at their stalls staring at the floor, answering questions in the kind of flat tone that only shows up when a season ends the wrong way.
Minnesota had a 3-0 lead after the first period. They lost 4-3 in overtime. Their season is over.
Marcus Foligno didn’t try to dress it up.
“Just tried to hang on. I mean, that’s pretty much it. Thought we had enough energy to hold on and hang on for a Game 6, but that’s how it goes sometimes.”
They couldn’t hang on for 40 minutes against the best team in the NHL. After putting 13 shots on Mackenzie Blackwood in the first, the Wild generated just seven the rest of the game. Seven. Scott Wedgewood barely had to move in relief.
Watch how Colorado erased the deficit:
Brock Faber was the most direct about it. No excuses, no spin.
“They deserve to win this series, plain and simple. They were more consistent. I feel like they outplayed us most of the series. You can’t really hide or dance around that.”
The frustrating part, Faber said, is that Minnesota can compete with Colorado when everything clicks. They just didn’t click enough.
“We didn’t change anything. We just started to lose battles and that’s how the tides turn. They turn that quick.”
Mats Zuccarello pointed to the mental side. Up three goals, the Wild started playing not to lose instead of playing to win.
“You’re thinking too much, ‘Don’t give them anything,’ and you start to maybe not make the plays you need to make. The human brain works sometimes like that. You’re too worried about not letting goals in that you forget about playing the game.”
Quinn Hughes, acquired in the December blockbuster with Vancouver, saw his first Wild season end in the second round. He thought the team did enough down the stretch to hold the lead.
“I thought we did a really good job of trying to close that out. Pucks in, pucks out, defending. They didn’t get a ton of looks.”
The numbers tell a different story. Colorado had 22 shots from the second period on. Nathan MacKinnon’s tying goal at 18:37 of the third was the latest tying goal in a potential series-clinching game in Avalanche history:
Kirill Kaprizov had a 2-on-1 in overtime with Matt Boldy. He passed instead of shooting. It never reached the net, and the play turned the other way for Brett Kulak’s series winner.
Asked about it after, Kaprizov kept it short.
“Maybe I can shoot it.”
That’ll haunt for a while. If the puck goes on net, it would’ve been his only shot on goal since the first period. Instead, the Wild are done, and a team that went all-in this year heads into an offseason with more questions than answers.
