DENVER -- Brad Richards didn't expect to be the hero, but the veteran of outdoor hockey became one with a late goal.

Richards tipped in a rebound with a minute left and the Detroit Red Wings beat the Colorado Avalanche 5-3 in the NHL Stadium Series on Saturday night.

Centers Darren Helm and Tomas Tatar had a goal and an assist each for Detroit, and centers Justin Abdelkader and Gustav Nyquist also scored for Detroit. Goaltender Petr Mrazek stopped 24 shots for the Red Wings, who have won two straight.

It was the first outdoor NHL game in Colorado, and it provided plenty of highlights for the 50,095 fans that packed into sold-out Coors Field. The temperature was 65 degrees at puck drop, making it the warmest outdoor game in the short history of the NHL event.

It appeared headed to overtime when Richards, playing in his fifth outdoor game, the most of any NHL player, came through. The center stationed himself next to the net and scored after goalie Semyon Varlamov stopped defenseman Niklas Kronwall's initial shot.

"I got lucky that it came right to me," Richards said. "I'd be lying if I told you I tried to put it in. I tried to chip it toward the net. I don't know if it hit his back, but we'll take those."

Varlamov said he read the play but just didn't make the save.

"The puck came off my (left) pad, bounced up and over my shoulder," he said.

Helm scored an empty-net goal to ice it.

Center Nathan MacKinnon had a goal and an assist, and left winger Alex Tanguay and defenseman Tyson Barrie also scored for Colorado. Varlamov finished with 23 saves.

The loss hurt Colorado, which is battling Nashville and Minnesota for the two wild-card slots in the Western Conference. The Avalanche have a four-point lead on the Wild and trails the red-hot Predators by five points.

The Avalanche have a chance to pad its lead when they travel to Minnesota for a game on Tuesday, which gives them a few days to recover from the excitement of hosting the outdoor game.

"It's really tough with the loss, but all in all it was an awesome game," MacKinnon said. "We need the win; we need to get points to play in the playoffs. It was a really cool experience."

Colorado (32-28-4) led 2-1 for most of the game before Nyquist tied it with a blind backhander 1:27 into the third period for his 15th goal of the season.

The wind then picked up and the cotton that served as imitation snow around the baseball field began swirling. It never entered the rink, but the players noticed the wind.

"You can feel it a little bit," Mrazek said. "The boards and the glass is there, I just could feel it when I was just standing there. I saw (the cotton) everywhere. It was snowing, right? In the 50s."

Abdelkader gave Detroit (31-20-11) a 3-2 lead at 13:28, but Tanguay tied it with his fourth goal of the season 14 seconds later.

"We were excited, the juices were flowing there," Tanguay said. "You want to get the win. We tried desperately. They got one more bounce and we didn't."

The Red Wings struck first when Avalanche center Carl Soderberg's clearing attempt bounced off teammate Shawn Matthias to Tatar, whose wrister beat Varlamov at 5:07 of the first period. It was Tatar's 17th goal of the season.

MacKinnon tied it with his 20th goal of the season at 7:44 when he beat Mrazek high with a snap shot from the top of the left circle.

Barrie made it 2-1 when he got a pass from Avalanche left winger Blake Comeau, deked Mrazek and flicked it in for his 11th goal of the season at 14:38.

The Red Wings challenged the goal because Soderberg was in the crease, but the call stood upon review.

NOTES: The Red Wings on Saturday traded D Jakub Kindl to the Florida Panthers for a 2017 sixth-round draft pick. Detroit waived Kindl in mid-January, but he was not picked up by another team. The Red Wings drafted Kindl 19th overall in 2005. ... The Avalanche recalled LW Andreas Martinson from San Antonio. Martinson was sent down after the team acquired C Shawn Matthias from Toronto on Sunday. He was recalled after Colorado waived C Chris Wagner. ... Red Wings C Brad Richards played in his fifth outdoor game, the most of any NHL player. ... The Avalanche beat the Red Wings 5-2 in the alumni game on Friday. Colorado coach Patrick Roy stopped 20 of 21 shots in two periods.