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Wild dealt brutal injury blows ahead of win-or-go-home Game 5 vs. Avalanche
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- Wild dealt brutal injury blows ahead of win-or-go-home Game 5 vs. Avalanche
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The Minnesota Wild are fighting to stay alive in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Minnesota is down 3-1 in their series against the Colorado Avalanche . Ahead of Game 5, the Wild are facing some tough news on the injury front.
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Jonas Brodin and Joel Eriksson Ek are not traveling with the team for Game 5, per The Athletic. Minnesota's players know that this is tough news to take .
"I mean, honestly, we miss (Eriksson Ek) and Brodin," Wild forward Marcus Foligno said Tuesday, per NHL.com. "You can see it. Over the course of the series, there's things that happen and it becomes a chess match a little bit and you get a guy like 'Ekker' in there or 'Brods' in there it changes a lot of things, right?
"We're doing our best to keep lasting here and buying those guys time to come back, but I mean, you're never going to replace guys like that. They mean so much to our lineup."
The Wild went into a 2-0 hole in this series, before winning Game 3. In a pivotal Game 4, Minnesota had Colorado deadlocked at 2 goals apiece. Things then went awry, as the Avalanche pulled away and scored two empty-net goals to win 5-2.
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Brodin and Eriksson Ek are both dealing with lower-body injuries. Eriksson Ek is about to miss his fifth straight game, while Brodin will miss his sixth straight.
"They are leaders on this team, they're veterans on this team, they're really, really good hockey players, but at the end of the day injuries happen," Minnesota defenseman Brock Faber said. "They have injuries, we have injuries. You can't dwell on that. You can't say, 'What if?' or go to bed thinking, 'What if?'
"It's this is the team we've got, and we're confident in this team and what each individual brings. Now you've just got to turn the page as quickly as possible and it's on to the next."
The Wild and Avalanche play Game 5 on Wednesday.
Related: All 3 NHL's General Manager of the Year Award finalists are still in the postseason
Related: 2 Wild players most to blame for Game 4 loss to Avalanche
