Wild stifle Avs to even series at 2-2
The official game recap Minnesota Wild vs Colorado Avalanche.The Minnesota Wild limited the Colorado Avalanche to 12 shots in a 2-1 win at Xcel Energy Center on Thursday that evened the Western Conference First Round series.
After scoring the game-winning goal in Game 3, Wild forward Mikael Granlund may have won Game 4 with his stellar defense.
With the Avalanche down a goal, on the power play and with an extra attacker, Granlund blocked three shots in the final 30 seconds, helping to preserve the win for Minnesota and send the best-of-7 Stanley Cup Playoff series back to Denver for Game 5 on Saturday even at 2-2 (9:30 p.m. ET; RDS, TSN, NBCSN, FS-N, ALT).
Minnesota outshot Colorado 32-12.
A hooking penalty on Wild defenseman Jonas Brodin with 2:15 left in the third gave Colorado the chance to play with a 6-on-4 edge. But unlike in Game 1, when the Avalanche were able to score with the extra attacker to tie the game and send it to overtime -- a game they won 5-4 -- Granlund and the Wild penalty kill did the job.
Minnesota dominated in the early going, much as the Wild did in their 1-0 overtime win in Game 3. Only this time, the Wild were able to get one past Avalanche goaltender Semyon Varlamov. A strong shift by the Wild's top line moved the puck behind the net to Zach Parise, who fed defenseman Jared Spurgeon high in the slot for a one-timer that beat Varlamov blocker side at 3:47. The goal was Spurgeon's first career playoff goal.
The Wild outshot the Avalanche 14-3 in the first period, but only scored one goal. The barrage continued in the second until Minnesota grabbed a 2-0 lead with some puck luck. Jason Pominville's shot from the right circle missed the net wide, but the puck took an odd carom off the glass and landed in the slot near Charlie Coyle, who fired it past a stunned Varlamov at 12:55 of the second for his third goal of the series.
Avalanche forward Ryan O'Reilly fluttered a shot between the legs of Darcy Kuemper 30 seconds later though, making it a one-goal game again. The goal snapped Kuemper's shutout streak at 124:36
Minnesota had a 25-7 lead in shots after 40 minutes.
Kuemper finished with 11 saves. Varlamov stopped 30 of 32 shots.
-- by Dan Myers for NHL.com --
Eurolanche.com, Worldwide, eurolanche@eurolanche.com
25/04/2014 - 06:30
