The Colorado Avalanche put the Minnesota Wild away in dominant fashion as their stars came out to shine.
The Minnesota Wild got a taste of how it feels to be shorthanded.
The Colorado Avalanche handed the Wild a 6-1 blowout loss Thursday night at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota.
The Wild (26-12-4) were without the services of Kirill Kaprizov, Jakub Lauko, Jonas Brodin, Jared Spurgeon, and Brock Faber, all out due to injury. Colorado (26-16-1) used that to their advantage and jumped out to a two-goal lead in the first period.
Mackenzie Blackwood stopped 24 of 25 shots for the Avs, which was playing the second of back-to-back road games following a defeat to the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday. Meanwhile, on the other side of the pond, it was the second straight rough game for Filip Gustavsson, who gave up six goals on 27 shots. Gustavsson was yanked for Marc-Andre Fleury in Tuesday night’s game against the St. Louis Blues, but Fleury wasn’t there to save him tonight due to illness. And things got ugly in the third period.
First Period
Mistakes dictated the opening frame. Josh Manson intercepted a bad pass from Marcus Foligno and immediately found Logan O’Connor sprinting behind the Wild defense to beat Gustavvson to give the Avalanche a 1-0 lead less than four minutes into the game. And with 16:52 left in the period, Ross Colton put Colorado up by two when Declan Chisholm fanned on his outlet pass from behind the net and delivered Colton a free goal on a silver platter. However, the Wild got one back a few minutes later when Zach Bogosian received the puck in the high slot and beat Blackwood’s glove side after Freddy Gaudreay dragged the puck across the slot. For Bogosian, it was his fourth goal of the season.
Second Period
With seven minutes remaining, Mikko Rantanen picked up his team-leading 25th goal of the season when he snapped a howitzer over Gustavsson’s right shoulder to make it a 3-1 game. After Blackwood made another impressive save, the Avs went the other way. After Rantanen and MacKinnon traded passes, the reigning MVP left it for Mikko, who sniped one through a screen for the goal.
Third Period
Minnesota pushed hard to get back on the board early in the third period, but once again, mistakes put them in a vulnerable position. Colorado made it a 4-1 game less than five minutes into the final period of play. The Avs took advantage of an odd-man rush when Joel Kiviranta drove the puck past the blue line before dropping it back to Parker Kelly, who ripped a shot into the top right corner of the net for a goal.
6:04 into the frame, Casey Mittelstadt got sent to the box for cross-checking, but it didn’t matter. Artturi Lehkonen made it a 5-1 tally when he one-timed a shot from Manson to score a shorthanded goal. After the Wild were unsuccessful on an attempt to redirect a shot on Blackwood, Manson recovered the puck and went end-to-end shorthanded before delivering a perfect pass to Lehkonen for a scintillating goal.
Just over a minute later, Rantanen returned the favor for MacKinnon, who sniped one into the net for his 15th goal of the season. And just like that, the Avs were standing tall with a 6-1 advantage.
Takeaways
The Avalanche appeared to be well-rested going into this game. While the scoreboard indicated a blowout, the Avs outshot the Wild 27-25, so they made the most of their opportunities.
While the Wild are plagued with injuries, they still managed to go 6-0-1 in their previous seven games. However, the relentless pressure from the Avalanche was clearly too much tonight.
Next Game
Colorado will conclude their road trip on rSaturday when they take on the Winnipeg Jets at Canada Life Centre. Puck drop is at 6 p.m. local time.