ST. PAUL, Minn. — Ross Colton didn’t hide his feelings in Los Angeles after spending the first two games of round one in the press box. Rather than sulk and feel sorry for himself, he’s found a way to use that energy for good.

And on Monday night, he was one of the heroes for the Avalanche.

“I thought Colton had a great night,” coach Jared Bednar said after Colorado’s 5-2 win over the Minnesota Wild in Game 4, a victory that gave the Avalanche a 3-1 series lead. “That’s one of the best games I’ve seen him play in a long time. Give him credit.”

The Avalanche host the Wild at Ball Arena in Game 5 at 6 p.m. Wednesday.

Colton kick-started Colorado’s offense in the third period, sneaking away from his man in front of the net and finding a soft spot in the defense. Nic Roy, who has been playing with Colton since the start of this series, found the winger on the backdoor to give the Avalanche a 2-1 lead in the third period.

That goal came at the end of a strong shift put together by Colton, Roy, and their new center, Brock Nelson. It all started with a strong forecheck by Roy, stealing a pass from goalie Jesper Wallstedt that was meant for Wallstedt’s defenseman. From there, it was a matter of the five on the ice for Colorado outworking the five on the ice for Minnesota.

“I feel like we just had a good shift from the start there,” Colton said. “We were preaching all night, kind of just get pucks deep, make their ‘D’ turn. And I think we did that to start.

“The play before that, I think (Nelson) rang one off the post. We just had a good triangle going. And (we were) fortunate enough that (Toews) kicked it down to (Roy in) the middle there. I was net front, and just tried to kind of push off my guy, and fortunate that he saw me, and, you know, just an unbelievable pass. And it was kind of just up to me to get it in. So, yeah, credit to the rest of the guys on the ice. They made the play easy.”

Colton, as his coach has acknowledged, is a streaky player when it comes to offense. He had gone pointless in his previous 16 games leading up to Game 4 of the first round. In four games this series, he has three points. The on-ice underlying numbers when Colton is on the ice look good for the Avalanche as well.

In his nearly 37 minutes of ice time at even strength in this series, the Avalanche hold an expected goals-for percentage of 70.23%, the highest among any Colorado regular against the Wild. They’re generating high amounts of scoring chances, high-danger chances and shots on goal in general when Colton is out there.

The regular season did not end the way Colton preferred. But if he can keep this momentum going the rest of the playoffs, no one will remember that.

“That’s a big goal, and I love the emotion that he showed. It’s not like he’s not getting scoring chances,” Bednar said. “It’s been a long grind for him to try and score. He’s been snakebitten a little bit.

“I’ll take one big playoff goal over a handful of regular-season goals every day.”

News and notes

• Bednar told reporters after the Avalanche landed in Denver that Sam Malinski and Artturi Lehkonen are considered day-to-day and neither injury is considered to be long term. Both were on the ice for morning skate Monday but neither was able to play in Game 4. “They got dinged up the game before,” Bednar said. Clarity on their status likely won’t be known until the Avalanche hit the ice for warmups Wednesday.
• The Wild’s Michael McCarron made waves during and after Game 4 when he called Josh Manson “a dirty player” not once, but twice. Manson’s coach did not agree. “He’s not that, but he’s physical. He plays hard, but I guess his track record speaks for himself. I don’t see him as a dirty player. He’s a physical guy, though, and he’s going to play hard in between the whistles,” Bednar said.