In late April, the Wild earned their first playoff series win in more than a decade by bouncing back. They trailed Dallas 2-1 in the series, and were down by a goal in Game 4, facing the possibility of traveling back to Texas to face elimination.

Instead, they tied the game, won it in overtime, and grabbed the next two games to reach Round 2.

And there, in Round 2, on Monday, they got a hard lesson in how great teams bounce back.

The Wild had routed Colorado in Game 3, getting back into the series with a 5-1 win. They took a lead in Game 4, only to see the powerful Avalanche turn the tables and dominate long stretches. Trailing in the third period, the Wild forged a 2-2 tie on the strength of Nico Sturm’s first playoff goal since 2021.

And from there, it was all Colorado. By the time it was over, the Avalanche led the series 3-1, and the NHL’s best regular season team had improved to 7-1 in the playoffs.

Most notably, immediately after Sturm’s goal, the Avalanche hemmed Minnesota into the defensive zone, and didn’t relent until Parker Kelly had scored the game-winner. They added two more into an empty net for a 5-2 win.

“They’re a good team too. They’re gonna have good shifts. They’re gonna have pushes. You gotta try and limit those,” Wild forward Matt Boldy said. “Yeah, there’s not really much of an answer for it. Yeah, those shifts are big. We know that. But the game’s not always gonna go perfectly. And they’re a good team too. But yeah, we think we left a little out there tonight.”

For Sturm, who won the Stanley Cup with Colorado in 2022, the trouble started long before his goal got the sellout crowd back involved.

“We made bad decisions with the puck tonight, especially in the first half of the game. And, to be honest, we probably didn’t deserve to win when you take the whole game into perspective,” he said, offering some brutal honesty. “I felt like we started playing with about seven, eight minutes left in the second period, that’s when we found our game. At both blue lines, really, that team is too good to where you can get away with some of those mistakes, turning pucks over at the far blue line, not getting pucks out at our blue line. And overall, when you take the whole game, the final score is probably where it was supposed to be, to be honest.”

For the team that has dominated the NHL this season, and is determined to hang a fourth title banner inside Ball Arena, the response to quiet the Minnesota audience was described as “tenacious” by the Colorado coach.

“There was no hesitation on our forecheck,” said Jared Bednar, of his team’s relentless attack. “Guys were skating, they weren’t coasting in, so we came up with some turned-over pucks and were able to find a little bit of space in D-zone for a couple shifts there, and then we ended up getting rewarded.”

The Wild’s bounce back in Round 1 was impressive and inspiring to an army of fans who were desperately hungry for some good postseason news from this franchise. Now facing elimination for the first time this season, they know that an even bigger bounce back will be required.

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Using the butt end of a hockey stick to strike an opponent has long been considered one of the dirtier and more dangerous plays in hockey.

When Wild forward Michael McCarron took a butt end to the face from Avalanche defenseman Josh Manson on Monday, he did not shy away from offering an opinion on the play. Or the player.

“He’s a dirty player,” McCarron said. “He took his butt end and clearly butt-ended me in the face,”

The play happened in the first period on the side boards to the left of Colorado goalie Mackenzie Blackwood. McCarron delivered a hard hit on Manson, who was back in action for the Avalanche after missing the previous four games due to injury. McCarron landed on top of Manson, there was some clutching and grabbing, and then replays showed that Manson made contact with McCarron’s face with the end of his stick.

When officials separated the pair, McCarron needed to be restrained as he tried to go after Manson as the defenseman headed to the Colorado bench. After a lengthy video review, Manson was given a four-minute double minor penalty, rather than a five-minute major penalty.

The Wild got the game’s first goal on the ensuing power play. They felt that was not enough.

“I don’t know how it’s not a five-minute (major penalty),” McCarron said. “I think the rulebook says its a five minute if you butt end someone in the face. He’s a dirty player. He always has been. Not very well respected.”

Wild coach John Hynes said he did not ask for an explanation of why Manson was not given a major penalty and ejected. Manson, for his part, defended his career and reputation after the game.

“That’s fine. If he wants to call me a dirty player he can just look at my history. It’s been 13 years and I haven’t been suspended yet,” he said. “I’m not that dirty. I think there are other guys in the league that are doing more. Was that the cleanest play? No. Was it purposeful? No. It wasn’t purposeful either. I served my time. They scored on it. Benefited them. That’s his perspective.”

In four playoff games, Manson has two assists and eight penalty minutes.

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With Colorado goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood pulled for an extra attacker late Saturday at Grand Casino Arena, Colorado center Nazem Kadri, alone at the bottom of the right circle, threw one final puck on net for the Avalanche.

There were nine seconds remaining, and zero chance of the Avs scoring three goals to send the game to overtime. Yet, when Kadri’s shot left his stick, Brock Faber stepped in front of it.

Why let Colorado leave the ice with even a sliver of momentum they could take into Game 4 Monday in St. Paul?

Matt Boldy pounced on the loose puck and scored an empty-netter with four seconds left to seal the Wild’s 5-1 victory, their first since closing out a first-round series win in Game 6 against Dallas on April 30.

Faber set up the first goal, scored the fourth, and set up the empty-netter when he blocked Kadri’s shot. In nine postseason games, he has four goals and nine points. So does blue line partner Quinn Hughes, who has unlocked something in Faber since joining the Wild via trade on Dec. 13.

Together, they have been the engine that makes the Wild go. The Wild are a forechecking team, and they’re the guys that keep the puck in the zone. The Avalanche had no answer for them on Saturday.

The Wild were a little stunned by how sideways Games 1 and 2 went for them in Denver. Now, the Avalanche were talking about what they have to do to contain the Wild forecheck — which was the key to everything for Minnesota on Saturday.

“Mobile D men out there,” veteran center Brock Nelson said. “Quinn and Brock can circle the zone, support one another, create a little bit of space. … We have to be sharp, be quick to close on the D men, try to prevent them from rolling a bit more and then just be quick to support.”

The Wild’s relentless siege on Colorado’s zone put the Central Division leaders, and President’s Trophy winners, on their heels. Avalanche penalties led to Kirill Kaprizov’s four-on-four goal, and to Hughes’ four-on-three score.

Ryan Hartman scored a power-play early in the second period, and the Wild scored on a delayed penalty when Faber started a rush, passed to Vladimir Tarasenko and crash the net, where the rebound off Tarasenko’s shot bounced off Faber’s leg and over the goal line for a 4-1 lead.

“One of those guys,” Wild coach John Hynes said. “He has the ‘it factor.’ ”

With a promising season on the line in a must-win game, Hynes rode his top blue liners hard — 29 minutes, 30 seconds from Faber, 28:30 from Hughes. He had to; it was that kind of game. None of the other defensemen played more than Jared Spurgeon’s 17:38.

The Wild didn’t just get up off the mat on Saturday, keep the bell from ringing at least once so they can look themselves in the mirror. They used a three-day break — their first real rest since sealing their first-round series with Game 6 against Dallas on April 30 — to get better.

The Avs didn’t lose that game Saturday — their first in seven postseason contests — Minnesota won it. The Wild reminded everyone that they’re an awfully good team. Their stars — Kaprizov, Boldly, Hughes, Faber and rookie goaltender Jesper Wallstedt among them — were the game’s best players. Their checking lines were relentless. The D made smart decisions. Passes were crisp.

“Tonight was a lot better. Tonight was the way we play,” Faber said.

For all the fireworks and special teams play, the Wild really sealed their win by keeping the Avalanche pinned in their own end for much of the third period. Until they pulled Blackwood — a courtesy replacement for Wedgewood in the second period — the Avs just didn’t have enough zone time late to forge a rally.

“They got a couple bounces … but they earned their bounces,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “They were going to the net hard. They looked like they were quicker, more physical and more determined. So, now it’s up to us to respond.”

The forecheck came in waves, mostly with Hughes and Faber at the point. Maybe we were so enamored with Hughes that we slept on Faber a little. He’s been so good since he was a Calder Trophy finalist as a rookie — general manager Bill Guerin followed with an eight-year contract extension worth $68 million — that it’s difficult to call this postseason a revelation.

And yet it has been.

Sometimes good players stay good players; sometimes they become great players. We’re watching Faber, just 23 and in his third NHL season, become a great one.

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