Revenge is a dish best served Cale.
“Tried to absorb it,” Avalanche defender Cale Makar said of Marcus Foligno’s little love-tap just 2:46 into Colorado 9, Minnesota 6, a flying shot that sent No. 8 into the boards and eventually to the locker room for treatment. “Just a weird kind of fall there.”
Weird fall. Weird hit. Weird night. Big Marcus decided he’d set the tone for the Avalanche-Wild series early in Game 1 on Sunday evening — and do it in the most brutal way possible.
As Makar went behind his net to chase a loose puck, the Minnesota forward threw all 228 of his pounds into the 187-pound Colorado star, who lifted a shoulder late and just bounced off the glass like a rag doll. Makar had to leave the ice for treatment.
But only for the rest of the period.
Cale sailed. Foligno failed. Instead of slaying a burgundy and blue dragon by taking out the Avs’ second-best player, the Wild officially woke up the beast.
Minnesota got feisty. The Avs got even. Makar returned to score two goals, both on third-period wristers, piling up three points over 21 shifts in a wacky Game 1 victory.
In the process, Colorado takes a 1-0 series lead into Game 2 on Tuesday night, ahead of what’s expected to be a snowy Ball Arena. After being bored and bopped to death by the Los Angeles Kings in the first round, Sunday proved to be a breath of fresh air, at least as far as pace goes. If the Wild want to play like this for the whole series — a lot of wide-open stuff, with a little dirty mixed in — the Avs are more than happy to oblige.
Although Makar doesn’t think they will. No, sir. Not after what he just did to ’em late.
“(Sunday) just felt a little bit more open,” the Avs defender reflected. “I don’t think we’re going to see that again (in this series). I think it’s just probably a one-off. I like that we were able to stick with it and find a way to win, obviously, in a unique way.”
Unique? That’s one way to put it. The Avs gave up five goals in four games to Los Angeles. They coughed up five goals over the series’ opening two periods to Minnesota.
Remember the 2022 Western Conference Finals? A young Edmonton crew on the up against an Avs roster already there? That was Sunday night. PlayStation hockey at its finest — and its most maddening. The Avalanche played a second period that made you want to throw your controller at the nearest wall.
Sunday was far easier on the eyes than watching the Kings pinch and punch. It wasn’t any kinder on the heart. With 3 minutes left in the second stanza, Nathan MacKinnon offered up a 2026 Nikola Jokic moment — an uncharacteristic mistake — of his own. With Colorado on the power play, the Avs icon lost the puck near the Minnesota blue line and stumbled while retreating. The Wild’s penalty-killers pounced, starting a rush the other way that ended with Marcus Foligno beating Scott Wedgewood for a 5-4 Wild lead — Minnesota’s third straight goal and its third of the period.
Defenseman Jared Spurgeon (46) of the Minnesota Wild cross-checks center Ross Colton (20) of the Colorado Avalanche during the third period of Game 1 of the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs on Sunday, May 3, 2026, at Ball Arena in Denver. (Photo by Timothy Hurst/The Denver Post)
The Avs got one back 69 seconds later, capping a bonkers second frame that featured everything but defense. About 4:15 into the stanza, Makar had put the first stamp on his return by starting a mini-Makar breakaway from his own crease. No. 8 secured the puck in front of his net, then fed a speeding Val Nichushkin up the right wing. The Choo Choo Train set up Avs defender Nick Blankenburg in the crease for a slick wrister and a 4-2 lead.
Blankenburg, who’s 5-foot-9, celebrated his first postseason goal by racing behind the net to share the love with Avs faithful. The defensive spark plug somehow jumped higher than any Nuggets forward did for a rebound in Minneapolis last Thursday night, chest-thumping the glass at the top of his leap.
But a two-goal lead wouldn’t last. Rarely does another forward group make Colorado look slow, but Minnesota seemed to delight in obliging. The Avs saw how the other half lives when the Wild’s Vladimir Tarasenko beat veteran Brett Burns down the ice, then Wedgewood in the crease via a Forsberg backhand tuck to make it 4-3 Colorado.
Blankenburg giveth … and then gaveth to somebody else. The defender got stuck in a sumo match in the Colorado crease with 7:17 left in the second. That caused enough traffic in front of Wedgewood to obscure the goalie’s eye-line, and Quinn Hughes, Minnesota’s Makar, lasered one from the blue line that beat Wedgie in the top corner. The Wild knotted up a wild one at 4-4.
A defensive corps already missing Josh Manson looked more rusty than rested after 40 minutes. Foligno’s shot was bad enough. Makar’s fellow D-man, Sam Malinsky, took one in the chops in the middle of the tilt, spitting blood all the way back to the home bench.
Center Nazem Kadri (91) of the Colorado Avalanche celebrates scoring on goaltender Jesper Wallstedt (30) of the Minnesota Wild during the third period of Game 1 of the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs on Sunday, May 3, 2026, at Ball Arena in Denver. (Photo by Timothy Hurst/The Denver Post)
“But I’ll say, there’s not too many guys this time of year that aren’t playing hurt,” Avs coach Jared Bednar noted. “That’s what makes the playoffs great. That what’s expected. It’s not a one-off.”
While Makar was being treated, Malinsky paired with Devon Toews and, in Cale fashion, got the hosts on the board first with authority. The Avs looked as if they might roll from there, scoring twice in 53 seconds.
Colorado’s third goal of the opening stanza was a MacKinnon special off a power-play rush. The Avs’ leading scorer fired at the Minnesota goal, caught his own rebound, stopped, turned left, and slid the puck diagonally to a hard-charging Artturi Lehkonen. The Finnish winger buried the wrister for a 3-0 lead that should’ve buried the Wild.
Only it didn’t.
Once Minnesota began working the puck from behind Wedgewood’s net, the Avs’ injury-riddled defense started to unravel. The Wild turned a corner scrum on the Avs’ side of the ice into a loose puck in front of Wedgie’s crease, and Minnesota’s Marcus Johansson slipped it past the Avs’ flailing netminder to trim the deficit to 3-1.
With 4 minutes left in the first period, Hughes played keepaway behind the Colorado net from a defending Brock Nelson. Hughed backhanded the biscuit to a wide-open Ryan Hartman in the crease, whose point-blank shot trickled under Wedgewood to make it 3-2.
“Yeah, it’s not fun when you kind of tweak something,” Makar said later. “But, again, it happens. You’ve got to be ready for it. So I had to check a couple things out and make sure it was good to go. Yeah, it felt good.”
It only hurts when he laughs. At this time of year, better to do it last.
