Minnesota likes to boast it’s the State of Hockey.

But the No. 1 Hockey Town in the whole USA?

That’s no contest.

It’s Denver.

“They call it the State of Hockey for a reason,” Avalanche defenseman Sam Malinski told me Saturday. “Playing hockey is what every kid in Minnesota dreams about. I think back on growing up on the outdoor ice, playing pond hockey for hours. And now I get to play in an NHL playoff game, back in Minnesota, where it began.”

Malinski grew up in Lakeville. He started lacing up his skates at age 4 and battled his brothers on one of those 10,000 lakes in Minnesota that make the sport a kid’s best antidote to the dead of a long, cold winter.

While hockey might not be life in Denver, it is our favorite way to raise championship banners.

The Avalanche and Wild face off in an NHL playoff series that begins Sunday.

One team is a legit contender to win its fourth Stanley Cup in the past 30 years.

The other team is a wannabe, noses pressed against the rink glass, just happy to have won its first NHL playoff series since 2015.

Yes, Minnesota has got us beat when it comes to walleye and wool long johns.

Well, that’s fabulous.

Hope it’s not throwing shade to suggest that here in the 5280, Denverites have to wear sunglasses to protect our eyes from the glare of el sol and the sparkle of championship rings.

Would now be a good time to mention that the DU Pioneers hoisted the trophy from this year’s NCAA hockey tournament?

Again. For those of you who haven’t been keeping score back in Minnesota, the men who proudly wear DU’s crimson and gold sweaters represent the best college hockey program in history with 11 championships. That’s more trophies than have been claimed by the Gophers of Minneapolis, the Bulldogs of Duluth and the Mavericks of Mankato combined.

As long as we’re inspecting trophy cases, how many times have the Wild hoisted the Stanley Cup?

I’ll wait. Get back to me. (Hint: The NHL championship won after the Stars bolted for Dallas doesn’t count.)

The Avs and Wild have a colorful and sometimes contentious playoff history.

A loss to Minnesota in 2003 was the last game of goalie Patrick Roy’s legendary career. In 2014, an 18-year-old phenom named Nathan MacKinnon scored his first NHL playoff goal against the Wild. Along the way, the Twin Cities got its knickers in a knot because some knucklehead Denver columnist suggested that the only folks who could love a Wild hockey uniform that resembles an ugly Christmas sweater are probably the same Minnesotans who leave their holiday lights attached to the house gutters all year round.

Hey, I kid because I care. Minnesotans are good people. As down-to-earth as a plaid flannel shirt. Courteous and kind. When I walked back to my apartment in the midnight hour after working a Nuggets game at the Target Center, that statue of Mary Tyler Moore consistently waited up on the corner of the Nicollet Mall and 7th Street to tell me goodnight.

When the depleted Timberwolves threw dirt on the Nikola Jokic era by eliminating the Nuggets from the playoffs on Thursday, it made basketball fans in the Mile High City extremely grumpy.

But should Cale Makar and the Avs drive Quinn Hughes and the Wild into the ditch of Highway 61? That loss would rip the soul from puckheads in Minnesota.

Hockey family in the Land of 10,000 Frozen Ponds.

“The sibling hockey rivalry in my family was as you’d expect,” said Malinski, who exchanged hip checks with two brothers, one of whom still plays at the University of Vermont. “It was always fun. It got heated. And we had our fights. But all good memories.

There are 16 favorite sons of Minnesota who have played 1,000 regular-season NHL games. Avalanche center Brock Nelson, whose base layer under his practice sweater was emblazoned with a salute to his hometown of Warroad, sits at 1,001, having joined the exclusive club this year.

How big a badge of honor is that in the State of Hockey?

After practice on Saturday, Nelson was quizzed about the top 10 list of Minnesotans in NHL experience, and he began rattling off the names (Matt Cullen, Phil Housley, Zach Parise) in order, then got mildly perturbed with himself when momentarily stumped about who ranks No. 6.

I asked Nelson, a father of two young hockey-playing sons, about his impression of the hockey community in Colorado since being traded here from the New York Islanders a little over a year ago.

“We love it. The fan base here (in Denver), I think is as good as it gets,” Nelson said.

“From youth hockey on up, our kids are getting into it, with the squirt program at DU. We love it. The coaches and community there (at DU) are great … I think you see the passion for Denver, the collegiate team, with the dynasty run they are on right now. The Pioneers show up on the jumbotron at our games, and the crowd goes nuts.”   

Nobody loves hockey more than Minnesota.

But nobody does hockey better than Denver.