DENVER — In the race for Central Division supremacy, everything is trending the right way for the Minnesota Wild.
Thursday night’s 5-2 statement win in Colorado left Minnesota just five points back of the Avalanche and ahead in their season series, with one more head-to-head matchup to come next Sunday afternoon in Denver.
Colorado, which took a ridiculous 27-2-7 record into the Christmas break, is operating at a more manageable altitude of late, with an 8-8-2 mark since the calendar flipped to 2026. So, even with the Avalanche owning two games in hand on the Wild, there is a fighting chance that a second division champions banner could be hung inside Grand Casino Arena when the regular season concludes.
But when you ask the Wild if grabbing the Central’s top spot heading into the playoffs matters, you get decidedly different answers.
“It’d be awesome to catch them and surpass them,” Wild forward Marcus Foligno said before the team headed to Denver this week. “For a team that’s been in the NHL kind of looked at as a Goliath a little bit, to be right there with them at the (Olympic) break was huge. We feel confident. We want that number one spot for sure.”
It has only been done once before in the 25-year timeline of the Wild. Paced by 42 goals from Marian Gaborik in the 2007-08 season, the Wild won the Northwest Division, which they shared with Colorado, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver, and got home ice in the playoffs.
That accomplishment amounted to little more than that aforementioned banner, as the Avalanche took Minnesota out in six games in the opening round of the postseason.
Even with Thursday’s win in Colorado — Matt Boldy returned from the Olympic return with two goals and two assists — and a 9-1-1 streak heading into Friday’s late game in Utah, the Wild’s odds of catching Colorado are slim. Depending on which numbers-crunching website you believe, Minnesota currently has a sub-10% chance of winning the Central.
They would be wiser, many believe, to set their sights on finishing second ahead of Dallas, to get home ice in a first-round series against the Stars. The Wild entered play on Friday night leading Dallas by a point, although the Stars had a game in hand.
There is an awareness that emptying the regular-season tank to win the division would be unwise, that building toward their best hockey for April is a smarter play.
“I don’t think it’s about catching people, I think it’s about growing our game to get it to the best place it can possibly be,” Boldy said after Thursday’s win at Ball Arena. “That’s the biggest thing for us, I think, is the better we can grow our game, kind of keep improving and finding ways to play as a team. Then that stuff just happens, and it falls into place.”
Since Minnesota re-entered the NHL as an expansion team in 2000, the Avalanche are the only foe that has been a division rival for the Wild’s entire tenure. They have met in the playoffs three times, with the team owning home ice advantage getting eliminated in each series.
So, maybe a head of steam going into the playoffs would suit the Wild better than a new division title banner in the rafters. As the wins pile up, it is increasingly clear that this Wild team has its sights focused on a banner won in June, not April.
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