Avalanche Stun Wild in OT Comeback, Punch Ticket to Western Conference Final
The Colorado Avalanche were down 3-0 in the first period of Game 5. Their season was 40 minutes from being over. Then they did exactly what championship teams do. They dragged the Minnesota Wild into overtime and put them out of their misery, 4-3, with Brett Kulak scoring the winner at 3:52 of OT.
Colorado is going back to the Western Conference Final for the first time in four years. The Wild, who looked like they were about to advance and shock the hockey world, are going home.
This was the kind of game you point to in October when somebody asks why the Avalanche are still considered Stanley Cup favorites. Down three goals on the road. Stars cooked early. Crowd against them. None of it mattered. Colorado kept pushing, kept attacking the net, and eventually broke the Wild down.
Jack Drury cut the lead to one with under four minutes to play in regulation. Then with the extra attacker on, Nathan MacKinnon ripped a shot over the shoulder of Jesper Wallstedt to tie the game and send Ball Arena into chaos. The Wild had spent the entire third period in survival mode. They could not survive forever.
Then Martin Necas set up Kulak in overtime, the puck found the back of the net, and the Avalanche were headed to the conference finals. Kulak is a depth defenseman. He is not the guy you draw up Game 5 hero stories around. That is exactly why championship teams find ways to win these games. Heroes show up everywhere on the roster.
MacKinnon is now 30 years old and arguably the best player in the world right now. He has dragged the Avalanche through some rough years since their 2022 championship, and the cracks of frustration started to show after early exits in 2023, 2024, and 2025. This run feels different. Cale Makar is back to peak form. Mikko Rantanen is producing at his usual elite clip.
The Wild deserve credit too. They pushed Colorado further than most expected and looked like the better team for stretches of this series. Kirill Kaprizov was electric. Filip Gustavsson held down the crease for most of the run before Wallstedt got the call in Game 5. Minnesota does not have anything to be ashamed of, but the result hurts because they were 40 minutes from advancing.
Now Colorado waits to see who comes out of the Vegas Golden Knights versus Anaheim Ducks series. Vegas leads 3-2 with Game 6 in Anaheim on Thursday night. The Avs would love to draw the Ducks because Anaheim is a year ahead of schedule and lacks the playoff scars to truly threaten Colorado. But Vegas is a familiar adversary that knows how to win in the postseason.
Either way, the Avalanche have to feel good about their position. They have rest, they have momentum, and they just proved to themselves that no deficit is too big to overcome. That kind of belief carries teams a long way in May and June.
The Eastern Conference Final is set with the Carolina Hurricanes waiting on the Sabres versus Canadiens series. The Stanley Cup picture is clarifying fast, and Colorado just put themselves squarely back in the mix.
If you wrote off the Avalanche after that 3-0 deficit, you are not alone. Most analysts had already typed out their Wild advance stories. But this is what makes the playoffs the best two months in sports. Anything can happen. And on Wednesday night in Denver, everything did.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
