Eurolanche

The second period leads Wild over Avs

The Minnesota Wild scored three goals in just over three minutes midway through the second period en route to a 5-3 victory against the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday at Xcel Energy Center.

The Wild peppered Avalanche goaltender Semyon Varlamov with 32 shots through two periods, including 19 in a wide-open second, which saw Minnesota turn a 1-1 tie into a 4-2 lead.

Devin Setoguchi scored his sixth goal of the season to open the floodgates in the second period, but Matt Cullen did much of the work. The veteran center sped through the Colorado zone and put a shot on net that Varlamov stopped, but a crashing Setoguchi poked in the rebound at 8:01.

Just 1:42 later, the Wild went up 3-1 on a snipe from the left dot by rookie defenseman Jonas Brodin, his first NHL goal.

Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog pulled Colorado back within one, 23 seconds later, but the Wild re-established the two-goal edge on a pretty tic-tac-toe passing play. Zach Parise charged into the offensive zone and dished back to Ryan Suter in the slot. Suter one-touched it back to Parise, who tapped it over to Mikko Koivu near the left post, where he fired it into an open net for his fifth of the season.

Minnesota grabbed the early lead when Cullen fed Torrey Mitchell in front with a pass from the right corner. Mitchell, who had an early goal wiped away Tuesday against the Anaheim Ducks, buried his second of the year with a wrister 3:04 into the game.

Colorado tied it in the waning stages of the first period on a power-play goal by PA Parenteau, whose off-speed knuckler wobbled past Wild goalie Niklas Backstrom with 25.4 seconds left.

Parenteau added his second of the night with 13:17 remaining in regulation after Avalanche defenseman Erik Johnson fired intentionally wide to the right of Backstrom. The puck caromed off the end boards and right in front to Parenteau, who made it a 4-3 game with his 12th goal of the season.

Colorado pulled Varlamov with just over a minute to play and had a couple of good chances, but Koivu added his second of the night on a backhander into the empty-net with 33.3 seconds remaining.

The Avalanche and the Wild will play again on Saturday afternoon in Denver to close out the home-and-home series.

 -- from NHL.com --