Darcy Kuemper allowed one goal on 13 shots before leaving the game at 9:26 of the second period following a collision with Minnesota forward Jordan Greenway. He was replaced by Pavel Francouz, who made 25 saves.
"[Kuemper] wasn't good enough to come back in the game, so I don't know where he's going to be at," Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. "We'll see tomorrow how he responds."
Kirill Kaprizov scored two goals, Mats Zuccarello had two assists, and Kaapo Kahkonen made 35 saves for the Wild (22-10-3), who had a three-game winning streak end.
"We had a real regroup after the second period," Minnesota coach Dean Evason said. "We care about who we are and how we play, and that was our talk. There was no structural discussion. It was just let's play and do what we do. … We just played the game and we played it right."
Rantanen made it 1-0 at 15:57 of the first period during a 5-on-3 power play, tucking in MacKinnon's shot that went off the end boards.
Newhook extended the lead to 2-0 on a one-timer off a pass from Samuel Girard at 17:39.
"With every game comes a little more comfort, getting a bit closer with the guys and familiar with the system," said Newhook, who has scored 13 points (eight goals, five assists) in 27 games as a rookie this season. "Definitely feeling better and trying to do what I can to help the team going and stay in the win column."
Kevin Fiala scored 33 seconds into the second period with a backhand to cut it to 2-1. The goal was his 100th in the NHL.
"They had too many Grade-A chances, too many shots," Fiala said. "They could have scored so many goals in the first period, I thought, and Kaapo just saved us and kept us in the game. … We are much better team than we were in the first period, and we came out and we scored a goal right away and then we kept on going I felt like and got better and better. And in the third, even better."