O'Reilly's two goals lead Avs past Wild
The official game recap Minnesota Wild vs Colorado Avalanche.Ryan O'Reilly had a big impact in his return to the Colorado Avalanche's lineup against the Minnesota Wild on Saturday.
O'Reilly, who missed Colorado's previous two games with a shoulder injury, scored two goals and got the game-winner with 7:16 remaining in regulation, lifting the Avalanche to a 4-2 victory and snapping Minnesota's four-game winning streak.
With the game tied 2-2 in the third period, O'Reilly forced a turnover at center ice and skated into the Wild zone. He passed to Matt Duchene in the right corner and took a return feed near the left post. With goaltender Niklas Backstrom already in his butterfly to take away the low shot, O'Reilly floated a high backhander high over his glove for his 16th of the season.
Maxime Talbot hit the empty net with 1:10 to go for Colorado, which was playing its first road game after going 4-1-2 on a seven-game homestand.
Minnesota had won four straight and was back at Xcel Energy Center after road wins against the Los Angeles Kings and Phoenix Coyotes.
After 29 scoreless minutes, the teams combined for four goals in less than six minutes midway through the second period.
Colorado opened the scoring by taking advantage of a 3-on-2 rush. Gabriel Landeskog passed to Talbot on his left at the Wild blue line and went to the front of the net. Talbot passed back Paul Stastny who dished to Landeskog at the doorstep. He worked the puck to his backhand and beat Backstrom at 9:07 for his 13th of the season.
It became 2-0 at 13:25 when O'Reilly fired a shot from the left post that snuck through Backstrom's five-hole and trickled across the goal line.
But the Wild quickly got even thanks to Charlie Coyle and Dany Heatley.
The two worked a pretty give-and-go at the Colorado blue line, Heatley fed Coyle with a pretty saucer pass in the slot and Coyle slipped the puck through Semyon Varlamov's five-hole at 14:19.
Coyle and Heatley combined for the tying goal 40 seconds later. Heatley set up behind the net, took a pass from Nate Prosser at the right half wall and one-touched a feed to Coyle in the slot. He one-timed a shot over Varlamov's blocker for his sixth of the season.
Varlamov made 24 saves to improve to 21-8-5. Backstrom made 14 stops for Minnesota.
-- by Dan Myers for NHL.com --
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12/01/2014 - 05:00
