The Minnesota Wild’s season came to a heartbreaking end on Wednesday night, falling 4-3 in overtime to the Colorado Avalanche in Game 5 of their Western Conference Second Round series at Ball Arena. It was a loss that will sting for a long time—a game that seemed well in hand slipping away in the final minutes.

The Wild stormed out of the gates with an electric start. Marcus Johansson opened the scoring just 34 seconds in, and Nick Foligno added two goals in a blistering five-minute stretch, giving Minnesota a commanding 3-0 lead less than 16 minutes into the game. The sellout crowd of 18,159, eager to see the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Avs advance, was stunned into silence.

Colorado clawed one back in the second period when Parker Kelly found the net, but the Wild still held a 3-1 lead with under four minutes to play. That’s when the tide turned. Jack Drury deflected a long shot from Devon Toews past Wild goaltender Jesper Wallstedt with 3:33 remaining, cutting the lead to one. Then, with just 1:23 left in regulation, Nathan MacKinnon threaded a perfect shot from the lower left circle to tie the game and force overtime.

In the extra frame, the Wild had two golden chances to end it but couldn’t convert. Moments later, Avalanche defenseman Brett Kulak—who hadn’t scored since January 19 while with the Pittsburgh Penguins—broke up a Wild rush in his own zone, raced up ice, took a feed from Martin Necas, and one-timed it past Wallstedt at 3:52 for the series-winner.

For Minnesota, it was a gut-wrenching end to a wild season. For Colorado, it’s on to the Western Conference Final to face the winner of the Anaheim-Vegas series. But for the Wild, this one will linger—a reminder of how quickly a dream can slip away in the playoffs.