ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Minnesota Wild are not the only team in this playoff series with ghosts.

Their apparitions were just more obvious and easily purged than the phantoms that haunt the Colorado Avalanche.

When the Wild beat the Dallas Stars in six games in the opening stage of the National Hockey League playoffs, it ended a run of eight straight first-round exits by the Wild. After spending a fortune this winter to acquire ghost-buster Quinn Hughes, nobody in Minnesota will be happy if its Stanley Cup run ends now, less than halfway to the goal.

But the Wild are still farther than they’ve been since 2015, and a second-round defeat would give them an encouraging launching pad for next season.

For the Avalanche, however, anything short of an appearance in the Stanley Cup Final will be a crushing disappointment.

They were not only the runaway Presidents’ Trophy winners during the regular season, but since 2018 have won more games than any NHL team.

Over this season and the previous three, the Avalanche have averaged nearly 52 wins and 109 points. But they won only one playoff series the last three years, twice losing coin-flip matchups against Dallas after being upset by the Seattle Kraken in 2023’s first round.

The Avalanche are not afraid of their ghosts; Stanley Cup rings from 2022 make a pretty good shield.

Still, that was the only time since coach Jared Bednar arrived in Denver 10 years ago and soon elevated the Avalanche to a consistent, championship-caliber team that Colorado has been past the second round.

When Minnesota goalie Jesper Wallstedt said after Saturday’s 5-1 win that cleaved Colorado’s series lead to 2-1 that the pressure is actually on the Avalanche, there was truth in that.

Of course, pressure is on everyone in the Stanley Cup playoffs. There’s no guarantee for anyone that you’ll get this far again.

But the demand on Colorado to win – and the expectations that have made them so good annually – were reflected by Bednar’s sharp and honest criticism post-game on........

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