After clawing their way into 6th position in the Western Conference to secure their first playoff matchup, the Wild were unfortunately dealt the task of facing the President's Trophy winners and arguably the best team ever to skate on CTCHL ice as their first ever playoff opponent. Coming into their first playoff appearance, the Wild were inexperienced and intimidated by the powerhouse Colorado Avalanche.

With Game 1 underway, the Avalanche Jan Bulis took a stupid, undisciplined unsportsmanlike penalty only 1:32 into the game. 38 seconds into the penalty, a Paul Mara point shot found its way through a maze of players and past Colorado goaltender, Patrick Roy. Bulis made up for the undisciplined penalty by tying the game at the 14 minute mark of the first followed up by a 2nd goal only 21 short seconds later. Despite dominating the first period, because of some quick strikes from the Avs, the Wild went into the intermission down by one.

"It was unfortunate after coming out firing and outplaying the league's best team that we had to go into the intermission down.", defenseman Paul Mara spoke to reporters at the break.

The Wild came into the second with another burst of life, rookie phenom Matt Stajan starting off the scoring with a goal less than 2 minutes into the period. Just over four minutes later Ray Whitney followed with a goal of his own and the Wild once again held the lead. However it was not meant to be as the Avs finished the period with a shorthanded goal, an even strength goal and even got a powerplay goal in the third. Down 5-3, in desperation, Paul Mara scored his second of the game but it was too little too late as it seems goaltending cost the Wild a game they were in the thick of.

"We very well could have won this game, I think we shocked a lot of people in this crowd, many still think we had a fluke year after finishing dead last just one short year ago. But we're for real and unfortunately Dunham didn't play the game we know he's capable of and this one just slipped out of our grasp.", said Randy Robitaille following the game.

Going into Game 2, the Wild were forced to make some changes, including taking out Randy Robitaille and Boyd Gordon in favour of Greg Johnson and Jody Hull. The change of Robitaille for Johnson paid dividends early as Greg Johnson made a brilliant pass to Blake Sloan who made no mistake and put the Wild up 1-0 only 6:51 into the game. The score remained the same until 1:47 into the second at which point Taylor Pyatt buried a goal that put the Wild up 2-0. The stunned crowd on hand was buzzing at the display but it only took two short minutes for the Avs to answer back as Milan Hejduk scored his first of the series to make it 2-1. In the third, Recchi tied the game for the Avs, but the popularly proclaimed "Messiah" Joe Thornton gave the Wild their first ever playoff victory with just over 2 minutes left in regulation. Mike Dunham played a much more solid game stopping 32 of the 34 shots he faced to silence critics, many of which suggested rookie goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury should start.

"As a professional, you have to try to ignore those types of things. We got a playoff series to win against the best team in this league, I don't have time for crap like that", informed 1st Star Mike Dunham.

With the series now tied at 1 a piece, the Wild now hold home ice advantage as the series shifts to Minnesota, which will see it's first ever playoff game since the Minnesota North Stars made the postseason. Few changes are expected as the Wild have played well enough to win both games, coach Jacques Lemaire and GM Tom Poraszka are very satisfied with the results thus far.