Well, the Avalanche did play a lot better Saturday night than they did in that awful 5-0 debacle in Minnesota in Thursday's season opener -- how could they not? -- but the end result was a 3-0 loss to the Wild before an overflow crowd of 18,139 at the Pepsi Center.

Two games, two shutout defeats with a four-game road trip that begins with a Monday matinee in Boston.

It's the first time the Avalanche have opened a season with two losses since 2008-09 when they lost the first three en route to a 32-45-5 record and fifth-place finish in the Northwest Division. The Avalanche hadn't been blanked in back-to-back games since Feb. 5-7, 2011 when they lost consecutive 3-0 games to Anaheim and Phoenix.

At least the Avalanche won't have to go up against the Wild again until Feb. 7. Counting last year's first-round playoff series, Minnesota has beaten Colorado in six of the past seven meetings.

Yet, considering how poorly the Avalanche played Thursday when they were outshot 48-16 (the count was 78-29 including blocked and missed shots), coach Patrick Roy said Saturday's effort was a step in the right direction. He shook up all four line combinations and defense pairings, and they played with a lot more energy, but the outcome was the same.

"Honestly, I'm happy with our game, not with the result but I'm happy with the performance of our team," Roy said. "We talked before the game, we wanted to compete, we wanted to be focused, enthusiastic, and it's exactly what we did. Unfortunately for us we didn't score any goals, but I think we can build on that game. It was a hard-fought game. I thought we were a lot different than we were last game. Unfortunately sometimes you don't get rewarded for that, but I liked the performance tonight."

"If we play like this, I'm not worried. We were going to the net, we put a lot of pucks on net. The goals will come and the confidence will be there at the same time."

The Avalanche did own an advantage in shots on goal, blocked and missed shots this time -- 64-58 -- but this has to be one frustrated group right now. At least the Avalanche forced 6-foot-5 Wild goalie Darcy Kuemper to stay awake this time; he finished with 30 saves. Kuemper, who has four career shutouts, made 22 saves against the Avalanche in a 1-0 Game 3 win in the playoffs.

"It's disappointing, especially in our home opener with a great crowd," said Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog, who had two shots on goal and took a couple of penalties, one for roughing and the other for shooting the puck over the glass. "We were a couple of goal posts from tying this game up. In the second (period) I thought we were buzzing pretty good. But it is what it is. Certainly the effort was there tonight. It's good sign and we have to keep working."

But Landeskog also said the team isn't working hard enough.

"I don't think we're paying the price," he said. "Certainly a lot more than we did in Minnesota. We got better tonight, but we're still being fancy, we're still looking for that extra pass."

The Wild took a 1-0 lead in the first period on a Charlie Coyle goal at the 1:51 mark, not exactly the start the Avalanche were looking for. Ryan Suter took a shot from the left point and Coyle deflected the puck behind goalie Semyon Varlamov, who apparentlywill have to throw a shutout just to get to overtime.

The Wild made it 2-0 lead at 11:50 of the second period on a goal by Jason Zucker, who accepted a pass from Thomas Vanek near the left hash marks and beat Varlamov with a one-timer over the goalie's left shoulder.

Zach Parise, who had 10 shots on goal after getting nine Thursday, scored into an empty net with 3.3 seconds left. Roy tried to put the fourth line on the ice for the ensuing faceoff, but, fortunately, the officials wouldn't allow it.

The Avalanche had gone on a 6-on-4 skating advantage with 2:33 remaining in regulation when Wild forward Matt Cooke was penalized for interference shortly after Varlamov (31 saves) went to the bench for an extra attacker. Still they couldn't score before Parise did.

"Five on five, we were the best team on the ice," Roy claimed. "We had a lot more chances than them. Their power play generated 13 shots out of 34."

The Avalanche did kill off all six of the Wild's power plays, though Varlamov must get plenty of credit for that. But they managed just two shots on goal on three of their own power plays and will take an 0-for-7 streak with the man advantage into Monday's game with the Bruins.

"I am surprised," Roy said, about the back-to-back blankings, "but if we continue to work like we did every night we'll score goals. To me this was exactly what we were looking for and it's how we're going to start scoring goals. I know the name of the game is winning hockey games. Sometimes you have to look at the positive and I thought we did a lot of good things. We have to stay sharp in a way that we should not lose our confidence because we got shut out in the first two games. We did so many good things and our confidence should grow."

Landeskog said he isn't concerned about the team being discouraged by the slow start, which followed a 1-5-2 preseason when the Avalanche scored 10 goals.

"I wouldn't think there's any risk for that," he said. "We're all professionals in here and we know how to get out of situations like this. We've all been through it before. But certainly we've got to do something different. We need something, a little spark, we need a goal. I think tonight was certainly a step in the right direction."

*****

The Avalanche lost defenseman Erik Johnson for the balance of the game at 2:23 of the period when he was assessed a 5-minute major penalty and game misconduct for elbowing Wild center Erik Haula into the boards. Though shaken, Haula was able to rise to his feet and remain in the game.

"There was no elbow there," said Roy, who added that he would be "very surprised" if Johnson is subject to further discipline by the NHL. "I watched it about 20 times. I understand that I had the video to look at it."

Said Wild coach Mike Yeo: "I’d like to see it again. There will be people that will look at that, it was dealt with on the ice and we move on."

*****

This was the Avalanche lineup Saturday:

FORWARDS
Jamie McGinn - Matt Duchene - Jarome Iginla
Gabriel Landeskog - Ryan O'Reilly - Dennis Everberg
Alex Tanguay - Nathan MacKinnon - Daniel Briere
Cody McLeod - Marc-Andre Cliche - Max Talbot

DEFENSEMEN
Nick Holden - Erik Johnson
Ryan Wilson - Brad Stuart
Jan Hejda - Tyson Barrie

GOALIES
Semyon Varlamov
Reto Berra



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