DENVER – It has been below zero in Colorado the last few nights, which is a rarity in this part of the world that is blessed with more than 300 sunny days per year. And if the Wild can be accused of bringing Minnesota weather to town, they can also take credit for their winning brand of road hockey making the trip to the Front Range as well. On Monday afternoon, the Wild got goals 95 seconds apart in the third period to break open a tie game, then held off a late Avalanche of offense by the home team, beating Colorado 3-1 to snap a three-game losing skid. Marc-Andre Fleury had 26 saves and a notable amount of assistance from a Wild defensive crew that stifled and frustrated Colorado for much of the game, including killing a trio of penalties called on Minnesota forward Joel Eriksson Ek. For the Wild, the seeds of the win were planted a day earlier, as they broke down a disappointing 6-2 loss in Nashville from Saturday. “I think there were some components in the game against Nashville we didn’t like and we had a good meeting yesterday and I thought tonight we played as a real strong five man unit,” coach John Hynes said. “I really liked our offensive zone pressure. I thought we were much better, the goals that we scored off the rush. We made better plays, we didn’t just throw pucks to the net, we hit our hit late guys coming in. I thought our forecheck and then our rush defense was really tight. We had our forwards come back hard, but our D had really good gaps, so that was more of the style of game that we wanted to do, and tonight we executed at a high level.” Jake Middleton scored a first period goal, then Minnesota got goals by Yakov Trenin and Brock Faber on consecutive shifts in the third period on the way to running their NHL-best road record to 17-5-3. For Middleton, the key was snapping a disturbing trend of being tied in the third period and seeing games slip away. “Sick and tired of it. We just wanted to win. Tired of losing in the third period,” he said. “Play 40 (minutes) hard and lose in the last 20. Sick and tired of that. So we accomplished that tonight.” For the fifth consecutive game, the Wild made the first impression on the scoreboard, when Liam Ohgren set up Middleton for a long-distance wrist shot that eluded Colorado goalie Mackenzie Blackwood’s outstretched glove hand. It was the first point of the season for Ohgren, who was called up from Iowa following the upper body injury suffered by Marcus Johansson in a home loss to Edmonton on Jan. 15. He added an assist later for his first multi-point game as a NHLer. The Wild had a pair of first period power plays and only a highlight reel sliding pad save by Blackwood prevented defenseman David Jiricek from doubling their lead in the final seconds of the opening frame. He did it again in the second period with the Wild again on a power play, as Blackwood’s sweeping glove save prevented a short-range power play shot by Joel Eriksson Ek from doubling the Minnesota lead. Fleury got onto the highlight reel himself on Colorado’s next power play, with two sweeping glove saves of his own on consecutive shifts to twice deny Colorado defenseman Cale Makar. Despite all of Colorado’s feared offense, halfway through the game he had faced just five shots. “It felt weird. A little cold even. Like what is happening? We’re too good right now,” Fleury joked. “Blackwood was making all those crazy saves. It’s like, ‘Jeez, I need something.’ Fun to see the guys play so well. They gave us the best chance to win the game.” In all, Colorado killed a quartet of Minnesota power plays in the first 40 minutes, and then drew even with 58 seconds left in the second period when Middleton lost an edge in the defensive zone, and Nathan MacKinnon used the extra space he was afforded to slip the puck around Trenin and fire a low shot past Fleury. It was the 18th goal of the season for MacKinnon, who leads the Avalanche offensively. The visitors re-gained the lead early in the third when Jiricek slipped the puck past a pair of Colorado challengers, then fed Trenin for a quick shot. Faber made it 3-1 on the next shift with a glove side wrist shot of his own. “We came in here confident in between the second and the third,” Faber said. “If we keep playing, keep going in the right direction, I think we’re gonna get some and it’ll frustrate them, so it was exactly what we did. We came out hot and hung on from there.” Blackwood finished with 23 saves for Colorado, which had beaten the Wild 6-1 in Minnesota on Jan. 9, in their first meeting of the season. Fleury was making back-to-back starts for just the second time this season, with Filip Gustavsson still recovering from the illness that kept him off the game night roster on Saturday in Nashville. Gustavsson was available as the backup on Monday if needed. The Wild return home for their next pair of games, hosting Utah on Thursday, then entertaining Calgary on Saturday, as part of the annual Hockey Day Minnesota festivities. The outdoor high school and college games will be held at Valleyfair theme park in Shakopee this year. 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