Minnesota Wild playoff scenarios: Will it be Colorado or Dallas in the first round?
The Minnesota Wild have secured third place in the Central Division, meaning they'll open on the road in the playoffs against the Dallas Stars or Colorado Avalanche.
Entering play Friday – the final day of the regular season – Dallas (108 points) leads Colorado (107 points). Both Dallas and Colorado won their games Thursday night, so the Stars are done and the Avalanche can win the division with a win at Nashville Friday night.
If Colorado wins, they win the division and Minnesota faces Dallas in the playoffs.
If Colorado loses in regulation or overtime/shootout, Dallas wins the division thanks to more regulation wins this season, which is the first tiebreaker. That would put Minnesota against Colorado in the first round.
If the Wild face Dallas, Game 1 will be Monday. If they play Colorado, Game 1 will be Tuesday.
The Wild finished the regular season with 105 points after losing 4-3 in overtime to Nashville Thursday night.
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.