DENVER - So there the Wild were, outscored, badly outshot, but never quite out of anything Sunday night against the mighty Colorado Avalanche.

With their grave all but dug, facing a two-goal deficit against an all-world goaltender who relishes the role of undertaker, somehow the Wild dug a little deeper and pulled out yet another surprise in what is becoming a season of revelations.

Down by two goals early in the third period, Minnesota hung around just long enough to score two unanswered goals and gut out a 3-3 tie in front of 18,007 at the Pepsi Center.

The tie allowed the Wild to wrap up their three-game road trip at 2-0-1, and it kept them atop the NHL standings with 14 points (6-1-2). More important, they discovered another way to stay out of the loss column no matter how steep the odds.

The Wild had no business flushing out a point on this night. They were playing their third game in four nights in their third time zone. They arrived in Denver at 4 a.m. Sunday from Phoenix to play a Colorado team that had been waiting two days for them.

The Avs outshot them 45-16 and enjoyed 13 minutes, 55 seconds of power-play time. Colorado was ready to apply the sleeper hold after Eric Messier's second goal 2:30 into the third period.

But Pascal Dupuis lit the comeback fuse with 8:25 remaining in the period, and Antti Laaksonen tied the score with 5:10 to play to stun the Avs and turn what seemed like a certain Colorado victory into ash.

"We've got a lot of character in this room," winger Richard Park said. "Each individual has faced some sort of adversity in his career to breed the kind of character and confidence to overcome obstacles. That, and we play a good system, work hard and get results."

They're also getting splendid goaltending. Sunday, Dwayne Roloson took his turn. He was bombarded nonstop for 65 minutes but stopped 42 shots to keep the game from getting out of hand. His snazzy glove work on Milan Hejduk with 1:26 left in overtime saved the game.

"I was just trying to do anything I could to keep them from scoring again and give the guys the edge we needed to get back in it," Roloson said.

As soon as Dupuis beat Roy with a second effort on a semi-breakaway, the Wild came alive and began to pressure Colorado. When Willie Mitchell's point shot clanged off the post behind Roy, Laaksonen was in the right spot to chip in the equalizer.

"We didn't have a lot of juice, but when we scored that second goal," Wild coach Jacques Lemaire said. "I don't know where they got the energy, but we skated more and moved the puck better and got some breaks."

The Avalanche came out flying in the first period, firing 15 shots at Roloson, who had to be sharp. But as usual, Minnesota took the early initiative with the man advantage and took advantage of Roy's light workload.

Rookie Stephane Veilleux pocketed his first NHL goal on the power play with 16:44 elapsed, and he did it by taking arguably the greatest goaltender in the history of the game back to school. Standing behind the goal line at the near post, Veilleux banked it in off Roy's right leg after he was late coming across the crease.

The goal gave the Wild a 1-0 lead, but it was fleeting. The Avalanche never took their foot off the accelerator, and 1:53 into the second period, Jeff Shantz tied the game. Messier jammed in a loose puck from underneath Roloson at 13:13 and added another 2:30 into the third. Methodically, though, the Wild chipped away and finally left the Pepsi Center with their first point in six games there.

Briefly: Defenseman Brad Bombardir left the game in overtime after he was struck below the right eye by an Avalanche shot. After the game, his eye was swollen shut as he iced it in the trainer's room. He will be evaluated today when the team returns to the Twin Cities.