ST. PAUL, Minn. - One Avalanche streak continued Sunday and resulted in an NHL record, but the one that ended left the club with even more work to do in the season's final weeks.

Every point is crucial, and the Avalanche did gain one in its 3-2 overtime loss to the Minnesota Wild before a sellout crowd of 18,568 at the Xcel Energy Center.

Center Paul Stastny set an NHL record for rookies when he extended his point-scoring streak to 18 games with a first-period assist, but the loss ended the Avalanche's season-best winning streak at five games.

"It's something special I'll look back on probably in the summer time," Stastny said, "but right now, it's tough to take after losing in a big game."

The Avalanche trails Calgary by eight points for the final Western Conference playoff berth with 13 games remaining.

The Flames have 14 games left, including a home match against St. Louis tonight and three more with the Avalanche, the first of those Wednesday at the Pepsi Center.

"We'll have to watch the game (tonight) and hope (Calgary loses in regulation)," Avalanche coach Joel Quenneville said.

"Wednesday, that's a game we have to win.

"Nine out of 10 points on a five- game trip; we're very pleased with where we're at. I think if we get nine out of 10 or eight out of 10 every five games going forward, we'll give ourselves a chance."

The Wild, which is challenging Vancouver for the Northwest Division lead, skated off with its third win in a row when Brent Burns converted a rebound with 18.9 seconds to play in the 5-minute overtime after goalie Peter Budaj made a sensational save against Marian Gaborik.

"We worked hard and we tried to do the best we can," Budaj said. "We at least got a point, fortunately. It's pretty disappointing, because we needed two, but it's not the end of the world."

Burns, a 6-foot-4, 210-pound defenseman, isn't much of a scorer; the goal was only his fourth this season and ninth in 173 NHL games, but he had a wide-open net to shoot at after Budaj dived to rob Gaborik.

"I saw the puck drop and I just shot it," Burns said. "That's usually the way it works out. You don't try to do anything with it and it usually goes in."

The Avalanche took a 2-1 lead at 9:47 of the third period when Ian Laperriere scored against goalie Niklas Backstrom after Ben Guite slid the puck in front, but the Wild tied the score 22 seconds later on Mikko Koivu's second goal of the game.

Koivu has 16 goals this season, seven against the Avalanche. He cashed in Gaborik's pass from behind the net after Pavol Demitra poked the puck away from defenseman Brett Clark along the end boards.

"(The shot) went off one of our defensemen," Budaj said.

The Avalanche killed off an interference penalty to Stastny that began with 32.9 seconds left in regulation, with Budaj making three of his 26 saves during the Minnesota power play.

Stastny broke the record he shared with Teemu Selanne on a power play at 16:16 of the first period. He passed to Andrew Brunette, who took a shot that Backstrom stopped before Milan Hej- duk fired the rebound under the crossbar.

Hejduk's goal, his team-leading 28th this season, tied the score 1-1.

"It was good to get it over with. Now I don't have to talk about it as much," said Stastny, who has eight goals and 18 assists in the streak.

"The whole family is proud, sure," Stastny said of his record. The mark originally was set by Selanne in 1992-93 with the Winnipeg Jets.

The Wild started the scoring at 11:20 when Koivu scored a power-play goal 7 seconds into a cross-checking penalty to Ossi Vaananen.

"If you're going to lose, you'd rather get a point out of it than nothing," Stastny said. "Now we have another big game Wednesday, against Calgary, so we've got to forget about this one and be ready for that one."

ETC.: The Avalanche scratched defenseman Karlis Skrastins and forward Marek Svatos again. Skras- tins has missed seven games because of a sprained knee and Svatos five because of a groin injury. . . . The Wild killed 27 penalties in a row over parts of 10 games before Hejduk scored his power-play goal. . . . The Avalanche killed 18 consecutive penalties over parts of seven games before Koivu scored his goal with the man advantage.

Colorado......1	0	1	0	-	2
Minnesota......1	0	1	1	-	3

First period - 1, Min, Koivu 15 (Parrish, Bouchard), 11:20 (pp). 2, Col, Hejduk 28 (Brunette, Stastny), 16:16 (pp). Penalties - Carney, Min (cross-checking), 8:59; Brunette, Col, (boarding), 9:11; Vaananen, Col, (cross-checking), 11:13; Clark, Col, (hooking), 12:29; Carney, Min (holding), 15:13; Klee, Col, (high-sticking), 19:54.

Second period - None. Penalties - Vaananen, Col, (roughing), 2:26; Veilleux, Min (roughing), 2:26; Laperriere, Col, (roughing), 5:39; Nummelin, Min (holding), 5:39.

Third period - 3, Col, Laperriere 6 (Guite, Clark), 9:47. 4, Min, Koivu 16 (Demitra, Gaborik), 10:09. Penalties - Carney, Min (delay of game), 7:46; Stastny, Col, (interference), 19:27.

Overtime - 5, Min, Burns 4 (Gaborik, Demitra), 4:41. Penalties - None.

Shots - Col 4-8-9-2 - 23. Min 9-5-10-5 - 29. Power plays - Col 1 of 3; Min 1 of 5. Goalies - Col, Budaj 23-15-5 (29 shots-26 saves). Min, Backstrom 15-8-5 (23-21). A - 18,568 (18,064). T - 2:21. Referees - Chris Lee, Michael McGeough. Linesmen - Ryan Galloway, Thor Nelson.

sadowskir@RockyMountainNews.com Wild 3, Avalanche 2, OT

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