Without Kirill Kaprizov, Jonas Brodin and Jared Spurgeon, Minnesota played a smart, poised and gutsy game, pulling away in the third for a 3-1 victory at Ball Arena.

Some of the issues that looked fixed two days ago in a decisive win against the Dallas Stars were again troubling for the Colorado Avalanche in a loss to the Minnesota Wild.

The Minnesota Wild feel a sense of urgency despite having nearly half a season left to play. After losing three in a row and four of their last five games, the Wild will look to turn things around on Monday afternoon against the host Colorado Avalanche in Denver.

The Wild held two separate leads before falling to Connor McDavid and the Oilers, losing Marcus Johansson along the way.

MacKinnon is the most likely Avalanche player to take advantage of a Wild defense that is bleeding shots. Not only is he the best shot-generator on the team, but the Wild have allowed the second-most shots to centers in the NHL over the past few weeks.

All the Wild had to do was copy and paste the defensive effort that stalled Colorado the previous game. After all, if that strategy was good enough to limit one of the highest-scoring offenses in the NHL to one goal,

Our updated fantasy hockey rankings sees movement in the top 250, with Nikita Kucherov and Auston Matthews battling for the top spot.

Yakov Trenin and Brock Faber scored goals 1:35 apart early in the third period, and the Minnesota Wild beat the Colorado Avalanche 3-1 in Denver on Monday.

Yakov Trenin scored against his former team early in the third period, and the Minnesota Wild beat the Colorado Avalanche 3-1 on Monday.

The Colorado Avalanche (28-18-1) continue their homestand against the Minnesota Wild (27-15-4) in another matinee matchup at Ball Arena. Puck drop is scheduled for 1:08 p.m. MT. READ MORE: How Will Jared Bednar Spend His Time During 4 Nations?

Welcome back to NHL Predictions. Each day, Last Word on Hockey takes a look at the games that are scheduled and offers insight and analysis to help predict who will be victorious in head-to-head matchups.

It was a tale of two games for the Minnesota Wild’s defenders. Minnesota was down Jared Spurgeon and Jonas Brodin against the Nashville Predators and Colorado Avalanche. Meanwhile, Brock Faber returned from his upper-body injury against Nashville.