After a whirlwind start to the playoffs, the Minnesota Wild finally had a chance to take a breath.

Now they will find out whether fresh legs and a fresh mindset can prompt a fresh start.

Minnesota will try to claw back in its series against the Colorado Avalanche when the teams face off Saturday night in Saint Paul, Minn. Colorado holds a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference semifinals.

The Wild dropped each of their first two games in Denver after rallying to beat the Dallas Stars in the conference quarterfinals. The Wild and Avalanche enjoyed three days off before the series shifted to Minnesota for Game 3.

“It’s huge, the rest is huge,” Wild forward Matthew Boldy said. “Sometimes it’s tough when you’ve got to jump right back into it (after winning a series). I think these days have been great for us to reel it back in, know what we need to do and reset a little bit.”

Meanwhile, Colorado hopes to pick up right where it left off.

The Avalanche are 6-0 in the postseason after sweeping the Los Angeles Kings in the first round and outscoring the Wild 14-8 in the first two games of the semifinals.

Colorado coach Jared Bednar senses similarities between Game 3 of this round and Game 3 of the previous round against the Kings. In that series, the Avalanche battled for a 4-2 win over the Kings to take a 3-0 series lead and open the door for a clean sweep.

Bednar expects the Wild to play with desperation.

“It doesn’t matter where you are, which building you’re playing in, if you have a 2-0 series lead, Game 3 is a critical game,” Bednar said. “We know we’ll see their best just like we did with L.A., and we have to be ready to play our best game of the series.”

Nathan MacKinnon leads Colorado with four goals and six assists through six playoff games. Gabriel Landeskog, Devon Toews and Martin Necas share second with seven points apiece.

Avalanche goaltender Scott Wedgewood will look to continue his perfect start to the playoffs. He is 6-0 with a 2.12 goals-against average and a .923 save percentage.

Wild coach John Hynes did not reveal his starting goaltender after Friday’s practice. He will choose between Jesper Wallstedt, who is 4-3 with a 2.81 GAA and a .903 save percentage in seven playoff games, or Filip Gustavsson, who is 0-1 with four goals allowed and an .818 save percentage to show for his lone appearance in Tuesday’s Game 2.

“I’ll let you know later,” Hynes said with a smile.

Kirill Kaprizov and Quinn Hughes lead the Wild in the playoffs with 11 points apiece. Boldy is next with 10 points, including a team-high six goals.

Joel Eriksson Ek could make his series debut after sitting out the first two games for Minnesota because of a lower-body injury. Hynes said there is a chance Eriksson Ek will play despite getting only one practice under his belt.

“I thought he looked good out there, so that was certainly encouraging,” Hynes said.

The Avalanche were outshot 31-23 in Game 2 but won 5-2 anyway.

Bednar said he liked the quality of his team’s shots, even if the quantity lagged.

“It gets harder to create chances this time of year,” Bednar said. “But, ultimately, you’ve got to find a way to win.”

–Field Level Media

This season is starting to look a lot like last year for the New England Revolution.

At this time in 2025, the Revs were in the middle of a nine-game MLS streak without a loss. One year later, they are rolling again as they’ve gone 5-0-1 in their last six MLS matches to rise to second place in the Eastern Conference.

When the Revolution (6-3-1, 19 points) host the Philadelphia Union (1-7-3, 6 points) Saturday in Foxborough, Mass., they look to extend their unbeaten streak and maintain their perfect record (5-0-0) at home.

This year, the Revs want to cash in on their streak — unlike last season, when they followed their successful run with a nine-game winless streak and failed to make the playoffs for the second straight year.

“We’ve had good results in the last several weeks, which helps the dynamic, always,” Revolution coach Marko Mitrovic said. “We want to be sure that we are not emotional thinking like, ‘Oh, now we are winning,’ and we don’t ignore things that we need to do good.”

While the Revolution have steamrolled their five foes at home, outscoring them 13-2, Saturday’s 1-0 win over visiting Charlotte FC was a struggle. Carles Gil scored the lone goal on a penalty kick seven minutes into second-half stoppage time.

Gil (three goals, three assists) and set-piece weapon Luca Langoni (one goal, six assists) rev up the offense for the Revs.

For Philadelphia, this season bears no resemblance to last year when it captured the Supporter’s Shield by compiling the best record in MLS.

After opening the season with six straight MLS defeats, the Union have gone 1-1-3 over their last five matches. That includes a scoreless draw last week against Eastern Conference leader Nashville SC.

“What we’re trying to do is bring stability to the back line and I think you’ve seen that over the last four or five weeks,” Philadelphia coach Bradley Carnell said.

The Union have the fewest goals of any team in the Eastern Conference with nine. Milan Iloski and Danley Jean Jacques are their lone players who have scored multiple goals with two apiece.

“It’s a team that’s very aggressive going forward, pushing the ball forward as soon as possible and trying to win their attacks, very good on winning second balls. That’s kind of their identity,” Mitrovic said. “We are not looking at the standings. Every game is unique.”

–Field Level Media

Two middling teams in the Eastern Conference clash Saturday night when FC Cincinnati takes on host Charlotte FC.

Cincinnati (4-4-3, 15 points) arrives on the upswing after beating the New York Red Bulls and Chicago to vault back into the Eastern Conference playoff picture. It sits sixth in the Eastern Conference with potential for more by getting guys back from injury to be close to full strength.

“The idea is not to play guys out of position,” head coach Pat Noonan said. “It was a unique stretch there and, hopefully with the healthy (players) of those returning, we can get guys in more comfortable positions and have better depth, better health and better competition.”

In their most recent match last Saturday at Chicago, their star, Evander, netted his first career hat trick in a 3-2 gut-check win. Evander ranks second on the team with five goals, one behind Kevin Denkey.

Charlotte (4-5-2, 14 points) comes into Saturday night having lost its last five MLS regular-season matches. It also lost in the Round of 16 in the U.S. Open Cup last week.

After a 4-0-2 start, Charlotte FC hasn’t won since April 18 to drop to seventh in the Eastern Conference. They lost two of those MLS regular-season games by multiple goals, but their most recent match was a 1-0 loss to the New England Revolution last Saturday. It was a hard-fought effort from Charlotte, but it still did not stop its losing streak.

“I thought the players pressed extremely well,” head coach Dean Smith said. “But, we must improve on what we did, but also know that the opposition is going to play a little bit differently as well.”

Midfielder Pep Biel leads Charlotte with five goals, one of six players with multiple goals.

Charlotte leads the all-time series 4-2-2 and it swept Cincinnati last year. Cincinnati hasn’t beaten Charlotte since September 2023.

–Field Level Media