The Colorado Avalanche erupted for nine goals in a wild 9-6 victory over the Minnesota Wild during Sunday night’s opening game of their Western Conference semifinal matchup in Denver.
Cale Makar found the net twice during the final period, while Nazem Kadri also tallied a third-period score to help Colorado secure the dramatic Game 1 victory.
The second contest of the best-of-seven playoff series takes place Tuesday evening in Denver.
Makar contributed an assist along with his two goals, while Devon Toews recorded one goal and three helpers. Nathan MacKinnon chipped in with a goal and two assists, and Artturi Lehkonen plus Sam Malinski each posted a goal and an assist. Nick Blankenberg and Jack Drury rounded out Colorado’s scoring.
For Minnesota, Quinn Hughes tallied a goal and two assists, while Mats Zuccarello, Marcus Johansson, Vladimir Tarasenko, Ryan Hartman and Marcus Foligno all found the back of the net. The Wild mounted an impressive comeback from an early 3-0 deficit to briefly take the lead during the second period.
With the contest knotted at 5-5, Makar – who had recovered from an early injury – received a feed from MacKinnon in the right circle and fired a wrist shot high past goaltender Jesper Wallstedt at the 3:21 mark. Kadri extended the advantage at 5:43 of the third period with a breakaway tally.
“I feel like I was in a pretty good scoring area,” Kadri said. “Ross (Colton) made a nice pass to spring me on the half breakaway. Been watching a lot of this goaltender, so picked my spot, and definitely picked it properly.”
Wallstedt stopped 34 of 42 shots he faced during the contest.
Zuccarello brought the Wild back within striking distance when the puck deflected off his leg and crossed the goal line at 16:01, but Makar responded at 17:06. MacKinnon sealed the victory with an empty-net goal.
“Score (six) goals,” Wallstedt said. “We should win a lot of the games. There was a rare night where they got (nine). Yeah, that happens. Let that go and move on.”
Martin Necas recorded three assists while Valeri Nichushkin added two helpers for the Avalanche.
Colorado goaltender Scott Wedgewood made 10 of his 30 saves during the third period to preserve the lead for his team.
Malinski, Drury and Lehkonen scored within a 2:01 span during the middle portion of the opening period to stake the Avalanche to their 3-0 advantage. Johansson and Hartman responded with goals one minute apart to narrow the gap to 3-2.
“Not playing for a little while was a good way to get things going again,” Malinski said of Colorado’s extended rest following its first-round sweep of the Los Angeles Kings. “I’m sure my family is really excited.”
The second period maintained the offensive pace. Blankenburg scored 4:16 into the middle frame to make it 4-2, and Tarasenko answered at 6:45 to keep the Wild within reach.
Hughes evened the score when his shot through traffic beat Wedgewood at 12:43 of the second period, and Foligno netted a short-handed goal at 16:55 to give Minnesota a 5-4 advantage.
“I’m proud of the way we kind of battled back there,” Foligno said. “I mean, it’s 3-0, it’s a great barn. They have great fans, and they can get on you. But we battled back, got some goals and absolute snipes.”
Toews evened the score once again with his goal at 18:04, just moments after the Wild successfully killed off a power play.
