DENVER -- Yakov Trenin and Brock Faber scored 1:35 apart in the third period for the Minnesota Wild, who pulled away from the Colorado Avalanche for a 3-1 win at Ball Arena on Monday.

Sick and tired of it. We just wanted to win. Tired of losing in the third period,” Jake Middleton said. “Play 40 (minutes) hard and lose in the last 20. Sick and tired of that. So we accomplished

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.

What was once the hottest team in the NHL, the Colorado Avalanche have been sliding of late. They had an impressive win over the Dallas Stars on Sunday, setting the stage for a divisional showdown with the Minnesota Wild on Martin Luther King Jr.

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.

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.

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.