With a little over a minute left in the second period, Colorado star Nathan MacKinnon made the Wild look silly when he deked Trenin and tied the game with his 18th goal of the season. It came on just the Avalanche's 11th shot on goal in two periods.

This affiliate content is not influenced by our advertising relationships, but AP and Data Skrive might earn commissions from our partners’ links in this content.

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

Kirill Kaprizov last played on Dec. 23, scoring his team-leading 23rd goal of the season in a win over the Chicago Blackhawks. He did not make the team’s post-Christmas trip to Dallas.

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.

Kaprizov has missed the past 10 games with a lower-body injury that has required lots of treatments and pushed-back timetables.

Still without star, Wild aim to 'rise to the occasion' vs. Avalanche The Minnesota Wild will be without their best player for the seventh game in a row when they face off against the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday night in Saint Paul, Minn.

The Minnesota Wild hosted the Colorado Avalanche for their first season meeting on Thursday evening, Jan. 9. The Wild were still without Kirill Kaprizov, Brock Faber, Jared Spurgeon, and Jakub Lauko.

The Minnesota Wild (27-15-4) are back in action tonight for one more game on the road before they return home. They will face the Colorado Avalanche (28-18-1) today for a 2:00 p.m. central time start.